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£77 

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THE BOY’S BOOK OF 

THE SEA 


BY 

ERIC WOOD 

' 1 . 

Author of “ The Boy’s Book of Heroes,” ” The Boy Scouts’ Roll of Honour,” 

etc., etc. 


WITH FOUR COLOUR PLATES AND TWELVE 
ILLUSTRATIONS IN BLACK - AND - WHITE 



> > % 


NEW YORK 

FUNK AND WAGNALLS COMPANY 


I 







Contents 



3 ? 


Naval Warfare — Old and New 

A comparison of ancient and modern naval war- 
fare is most interesting, and here, in the stories of the 
Battles of Trafalgar and the Bight of Heligoland, the 
comparison — nay, contrast — is particularly striking. 


The Men who Discovered the World 

The men who ventured forth on the unknown seas 
laid the foundations of nations and commerce, and 
opened up new worlds ; and the stories of their voyages 
are amongst the finest in the world’s history. 


Some Early Buccaneers ... 

The glamour of romance has been thrown around 
the buccaneers, and not unjustly, for anything more 
romantic — not to say exciting — it would be hard to 
imagine than the story of those men who, from being 
hunters of wild animals, became scourers of the seas : 
heroic ruffians ! 


Morgan : Buccaneer and Governor 

Sir Henry Morgan, most renowned of the buc- 
caneers, was a born leader of men and a doer of mighty 
deeds. He would have made a capital admiral or 
general ; as it was, he was merely a buccaneer, who 
later forsook that profession for the safer one of 
Governor of Jamaica. 


Under the Jolly Roger .... 

Who has not read with many a thrill the imagina- 
tive stories of pirates ? But no novelist can conceive 
anything more dramatic than the deeds of the real 
pirates whose tales are told here. 


PAGE 

I 


29 


45 


57 


76 


iv Contents 


Blockade Running 

For perils adventure, and courage blockade running 
would be di^culi to beat, and the man who succeeds in 
slipping through earns all the money that he gets. 


Adventures on a Desert Island 

The life and adventures of our old friend Robinson 
Crusoe have always entertained us — old and young; 
but we have no need to go to fiction to find adventures 
quite as thrilling as any poor old Robinson Crusoe 
experienced. Here is a tale of shipwrecked and 
castaway mariners. 

Adrift with Madmen .... 

When the ** Columbian ” was burnt in the Atlantic 
one of her boats, laden with sixteen men, was adrift for 
thirteen days — days of terror, in which men went mad 
from thirst. 


Francis Drake’s Raid on the Spanish Main . 

Drake and Hawkins went slave-trading on the 
Main, and, having been played a treacherous trick 
by the Spaniards, a few years later Drake went back 
to take his revenge ; and though ill-luck stepped in and 
kept him from doing all he would, yet he exacted good 
toll, and came back well pleased. 


A Gallant Fisherman .... 

The men who garner the harvests of the seas have a 
perilous, adventurous life ; here is a fisherman’s yarn 
of heroism. 


Fire at Sea 

There are few things more terrible than fire at sea, 
where salvation depends, not on outside help, but on 
the resource and heroic work of the endangered sailors. 


Romance of Treasure-Trove . 

Scattered about the Seven Seas are islands on which 
tradition has it that vast hoards of treasure have been 
hidden ; and men have fitted out expeditions to find 
them. Sometimes they are successful — sometimes not. 


PAGE 

94 

102 

122 

140 

145 

158 


Contents 


V 


Adventures Under Sea .... 

Father Neptune’s kingdom down below has been 
invaded by presumptuous many who not only goes upon 
the sea in ships, but under as well ; while when the 
need arises he doesn’t even bother about a ship / These 
are stories of divers and submarines. 


Chasing Pirates in the China Sea . 

Some tales of modern pirating. 


A Voyage of Danger .... 

Of all the chapters in the sea’s history few are 
more thrilling than those which tell of mutiny, and the 
affair of the “ Flowery Land” is a classic. 


The Guardians of the Coast . 

Coastguards and lighthousemen are hardy, noble 
men, whose duties are manifold and arduous. Here 
are some stories of the men who keep watch and ward 
over the coasts, and in the doing of it win for themselves 
glory. 


Great Naval Disasters .... 

The Loss of the ** Formidable” (1915) and the 
** Victoria” (1893). 


Incidents in the Slave Trade 

Although Britain spent millions of pounds to put 
down the slave trade, yet she also had to spend the lives 
of many gallant sailors before the work was done. 


A Race to Succour 

A story of a 'brilliant achievement by American 
revenue men and lifeboatmen. 


A Tragedy of the South Pole 

The quest of the South Pole lured men for years to the 
ice-bound regions of the earth, and at last success crowned 
the efforts which cost life and treasure and gave undying 
honour to the conquerors. 


PAGE 

i66 

177 

186 

196 

206 

219 

226 

233 


vi Contents 

PAGE 

Stories of the Lifeboat 247 

The lifeboatmen are the saviours of men who sail 
the seas, and their story is one of sublime indifference 
to death and of glorious heroism. 

Tales of the Smugglers 260 

Stories of smugglers have always had a fascina- 
tion, and these incidents of smuggling days are full 
of thrill and virility. 

Modern Corsairs 274 

When the Great War of 1914 turned the armed 
hosts of Europe loose, the British Navy found before 
it a gigantic task : the keeping open of the trade routes. 

German cruisers and armed liners swept hither and 
thither, holding up merchant vessels, as the privateers of 
olden days did; and the “ Emden” and the “ Konigs- 
berg,” etc. became the corsairs of the twentieth century. 

The Wreckers 282 

False lights that lured the mariner astray and on to 
the rocks ; bold, unscrupulous men who lay in wait 
for the ships to run to their doom ; the looting of vessels 
rendered helpless — all these things and many others go 
to make up thrilling chapters in the story of the sea. 

The Tragedy of a Wonder Ship . . . 295 

The Titanic ” was the finest ship in the world. 

She was pronounced unsinkable — but, out of the night 
there loomed an iceberg which ripped her plates asunder 
like so much paper, and the safest ship in the world 
dived beneath the surface with hundreds of unfortunate 
passengers and crew. 


Mysteries of the Sea ..... 309 

Queer stories of ships that disappeared. 


List of Illustrations 


COLOUR PLATES 

Shells fell upon her like hailstones, sweeping 

HER DECKS, CRASHING INTO HER SIDES. ShE WAS ON 
FIRE ” . . . . . . . Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

Sword in hand, Roberts led his men to the fight, 

DASHING THROUGH A VERY HAIL OF SHOT ” . . QO 

The funnels and ventilators were belching forth 

MIGHTY COLUMNS OF FLAME, EVERY PART OF THE SHIP 
WAS ABLAZE ” ....... I 50 

Though her men worked hard at the pumps, they 

COULD NOT SAVE HER ” . . . . . . 226 

BLACK-AND-WHITE PLATES 

FACING PAGE 

Kennedy, with a couple of middies and fewer than 

THIRTY MEN, RUSHED ABOARD ” 8 

A MIGHTY GALE CAUGHT DiAZ, AND CARRIED HIS FRAIL 

CRAFT BEFORE IT ” . . . . . . *30 

Promptly boarded the Vice-Admiral. ‘Surrender!' 

YELLED THE BUCCANEERS ” . . . . > 5 ^ 

There was a whoosh I whoosh 1 of a rocket heaven- 
wards — THE WARNING TO THE BLOCKADING FLEET ” 94 

WeYBHAYS AND HIS MEN FELL UPON THE PIRATES ” . I 08 


viii List of Illustrations 

FACING 

“ ‘ For the honour of the Queen of England, I must 

HAVE PASSAGE THIS WAY ! * CRIED DrAKE, AND DIS- 
CHARGED HIS PISTOL ” . 

“ The ship was now in one blaze, and her masts began 

TO FALL IN ” . 

“ Swinging from this side to that as he was attacked, 

THE DIVER MANAGED TO WARD OFF THE TIGERS OF 
THE DEEP 

“ To THE RIGGING THEY FLED, SCRAMBLING UP IN FRENZIED 
HASTE " ........ 

“ It was simply agonising to watch the wretched men 

STRUGGLING OVER THE SHIP’S BOTTOM IN MASSES ” 

“ She fought bravely against the tumult, but was 
DRIVEN back again AND AGAIN ” . 


PAGE 

134 

154 

176 

200 

216 

250 


“ Men, strong-limbed, full-blooded, with the zest 

AND THE LOVE OF LIFE IN THEM, STOOD CALMLY BY ” 


300 


THE BOY’S BOOK OF THE SEA 


NAVAL WARFARE— OLD AND NEW 

Trafalgar and Modern Fights in the North Sea 

N ot the least remarkable of the changes which 
have taken place during the last hundred years 
— it is less than that, really — are those which have 
come to pass in the sphere of warfare ; and the accounts 
of the battles here given show how different naval 
fighting is to-day from what it was in Nelson’s time. 
Then wooden ships, now steel leviathans; then guns 
that fired about 800 yards, now giant weapons that 
hit the mark ten miles off ; then close fighting, board- 
ing, hand-to-hand conflicts, now long-range fighting, 
with seldom, if ever, a chance to board. Then shots 
that did what would be considered little damage beside 
that wrought by the high-explosive shells which pene- 
trate thick armour-plate, and which, well placed, can 
send a ship to the bottom. Then none of those speed- 
ing death-tubes, the torpedoes, which work such dread- 
ful havoc with a floating citadel; then casualties in a 
whole battle no more than those suffered by a single 
ship nowadays. And so one could go on, touching 
on wireless telegraptjy, fire-control — that ingenious 
system which does man’s work of sighting the guns — 
aircraft and submarines, which constitute so serious a 
factor in present-day warfare. But the story of 

B 


2 


The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

Trafalgar, that well-fought battle against a noble foe 
who is now a gallant ally, and those of the North Sea, 
1914 and 1915, will show the revolutions in modern 
naval warfare. 

Nelson had determined to meet and beat Villeneuve, 
in command of the allied French and Spanish fleet, 
which left Cadiz at the end of September, 1805. The 
French admiral did not know how near Nelson was. 
To-day the means of communication are vastly 
different, and battleships are able to discover the 
proximity of their foes much more easily than in those 
other days. It is one of the great changes in naval 
warfare. So it was that the allied fleets were dogged 
until Nelson decided it was time to strike. 

On the 2ist the rival fleets met. The English fleet 
was in order of battle — two lines, with an advanced 
squadron of eight fast-sailing two-deckers. Nelson, 
in the Victory, led one column, Collingwood, in the 
Royal Sovereign, the other. 

About half-past eight Villeneuve ordered his fleet to 
draw up in such array and position that, if necessary, 
they could make for Cadiz ; but the manoeuvre was badly 
executed, and the fleet assumed a crescent-shaped for- 
mation, into which the English columns were sailing. 

Nelson was longing for the fight; so were his men. 
But, although the officers on board the Victory were 
eager for the fight, they would have been content to 
forgo the honour of opening the fight in favour of 
some other ship, fearing lest Nelson should be killed. 

Nelson was asked: “Could not the Temeraire take 
the foremost place of the column ? ” 

Nelson replied : 

“ Oh, yes, let her go — if she can ! ” 

Captain Hardy hailed the Temeraire to give her 
instructions; but, meanwhile, Nelson was moving 


Naval Warfare— Old and New 3 

about the decks giving orders that made the Victory 
leap forward and hold her place in the vanguard. 

“There ! ” he said to Hardy, as he came back. “Let 
the Temeraires open the ball, if they can — which they 
most assuredly can’t ! I think there’s nothing more 
to be done now, is there, till we open fire? Oh, yes, 
stay a minute, though. I suppose I must give the fleet 
something as a final fillip. Let me see. How would 
this do : ‘ Nelson expects that every man will do his 
duty ? ’ ” 

Hardy suggested that “ England expects ” would be 
an improvement. Nelson agreed. The order was given ; 
and the message was soon fluttering in the breeze. 

What shouts of enthusiasm greeted the signal in 
Trafalgar’s Bay I Every man took it as a message to 
himself, and forthwith vowed to do what was expected 
of him. 

“Now,” said Nelson. “I can do no more. We 
must trust to the great Disposer of events and the 
justice of our cause. I thank God for this opportunity 
of doing my duty ! ” 

For all his apparent good spirits the Admiral had a 
foreboding of impending ill, and when Captain Black- 
wood left him to take up his place on the Euryalus, 
the Admiral gripped him by the hand and said : 

“ God bless you, Blackwood ! I shall never see you 
again.” 

The battle was opened by the French ship Fougueux, 
which fired upon the Royal Sovereign. 

“Engage the enemy more closely,” was now Nel- 
son’s signal, and the English closed in upon the foe. 
Collingwood broke through the enemy’s line astern the 
Santa Anna. He reserved his fire until he was almost 
at the muzzles of their guns, then, with a roar, his 
port broadside was hurled at the Santa Anna, and four 


4 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

hundred men fell killed and wounded, and fourteen of 
the Spaniard’s guns were put out of action. 

The starboard guns spoke to the Fougueux at the 
same time. Owing to the dense smoke and the greater 
distance, the damage done was not so great. 

“By Jove, Rotherham!” cried Collingwood to his 
flag-captain. “What would Nelson give to be here?” 

“And,” says James in his Naval History, “by a 
singular coincidence Lord Nelson, the moment he saw 
his friend in his enviable position, exclaimed : ‘ See 
how that noble fellow Collingwood carries his ship into 
action.’ ” 

Collingwood now pressed still closer on the Santa 
Anna, and a smart battle began between the two great 
ships, till four other ships bore down upon the Royal 
Sovereign, so that she was very soon the centre of a 
ring of fire. So close were the ships, and so continuous 
was the fire, that often cannon-balls met in mid-air, 
though more frequently they fell on board and did much 
damage. Badly aimed shots often passed over the 
Royal Sovereign, and found their mark on the decks of 
French or Spanish vessels. Presently the four new- 
comers veered off when they noticed that other British 
ships were bearing down upon them. 

With a roar the British Belleisle sent a broadside 
into the Santa Anna as she passed; and then Colling- 
wood was alone with his foe. For over an hour the 
duel raged, and the Royal Sovereign, although she 
carried a dozen guns fewer than the Santa Anna, suf- 
fered less. Battered, mastless, with hundreds of men 
lying in pools of blood, the Santa Anna still fought on, 
refusing for a long time to strike her colours. At 
last, however, there was nothing for it but to give in, 
and the Spanish flag fluttered down the mast. 

When the battle began the foe opened fire at the 


Naval Warfare— Old and New 5 

Victory, which they knew was Nelson’s flagship. The 
English Admiral had made sure that he should not be 
lost sight of, for he had hoisted several flags lest one 
should be carried away. The Victory's maintopgallant 
sail was shot away, and broadsides were hurled at her, 
but still she kept on. 

Nelson wished to encounter Villeneuve, and, despite 
a raking fire poured in upon him by the Santissima 
Trinidad, he kept on his way, taking the Victory into 
the thick of the fight. He refused to have the hammocks 
slung higher lest they should interrupt his view, 
although they would have afforded shelter from the 
enemy’s fire. Men dropped all about the ship, shots 
ploughed up the deck or bored their way through the 
sides, yet the gallant Victory held on her way for the 
Bucentaure, which Nelson knew carried Admiral 
Villeneuve. 

Eight ships, however, surrounded her, and made it 
impossible for the Victory to be brought alongside. 
These, belching forth their heavy fire at her, smashed 
her wheel, hurled her mizzen-mast overboard, shattered 
her sails. The wind had dropped, too; the Victory was 
almost at a standstill, and it was impossible to bring a 
gun into action. 

Pacing his quarter-deck Nelson waited for his time 
to come. While doing so, a shot passed between him 
and Hardy, bruising the latter’s foot, and tearing the 
buckle from his shoe. Both stopped in their promenade, 
looking anxiously at each other. 

“This is too warm work to last long. Hardy,” said 
Nelson. 

“The enemy are closing up their line, sir,” said 
Hardy. “See ! We can’t get through without running 
one of them aboard ! ” 

“I can’t help that,” said Nelson, “and I don’t see 


6 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

that it matters much which we tackle first. Take your 
choice. Go on board which you please.” 

Villeneuve on the Bucentaure was therefore given 
a treble-shotted, close-range broadside, which disabled 
four hundred men and put twenty guns out of action, 
and left the ship almost defenceless. 

Then, porting his helm. Nelson bore down on the 
Redoutable and the Neptune. The latter veered off, 
but the former could not escape the Victory, which she 
therefore received with a broadside. Then, fearing that 
a boarding party would enter her, the lower deck ports 
were shut. Meanwhile the Temeraire had fastened on 
to the Redoutable on the other side, and the most 
momentous episode in that great day’s work took place. 
In it we can see the difference between the naval fighting 
of a century ago and that of to-day, the latter being 
fought at long range, with no attempt at boarding. 

The Victory's guns were depressed so that they 
should not do damage to the Temeraire, and broadside 
after broadside was poured into the Redoutable, which 
made a brave show. The two ships were almost rub- 
bing sides (now we fight at eight-mile range or more !), 
and men stood by the British guns with buckets of water 
in their hands, which, immediately the guns were fired, 
they emptied into the hole made in the Redoutable*s 
side lest she should catch fire, and so the prize be lost. 

In the RedoutabW s top riflemen were posted, and 
throughout the fight picked off man after man — a, prac- 
tice which Nelson himself abhorred. It was from one 
of these snipers that the great Admiral received his 
death-wound. 

While pacing the poop deck. Nelson suddenly swung 
round and pitched forward on his face. A ball had 
entered in at the left shoulder, and passed through his 
backbone. 


Naval Warfare— Old and New 7 

Hardy, turning, saw three men lifting him up. 

“They have done for me at last. Hardy,” Nelson 
said feebly. 

“Oh, I hope not!” cried Hardy. 

“Yes,” was the reply; “my backbone is shot 
through ! ” 

The bearers carried him down the ladders to the 
lower deck. On the way, despite his awful agony. 
Nelson had thoughts for nothing but the battle; he 
ordered that new tiller ropes should be rigged to replace 
those which had been shot away at the moment the 
Victory had crashed into the Redoutahle, Then, that 
they might not recognise him, he covered his face and 
stars with his handkerchief. 

They carried him into the cockpit. We will leave 
him, and return to the conflict. 

The men in the RedoutahW s top still kept up their 
galling fire, as also did the guns of the second deck, 
and in less than fifteen minutes after Nelson had been 
shot down, no fewer than fifty of the Victory's officers 
and men had met a like fate. 

Then the French determined to board. As it was 
impossible to do this by the bulwarks, they lowered 
their main yard and turned it into a bridge, over which 
they scrambled on to the deck of the Victory, 

“ Repel boarders ! ” 

It was a cry like that of a wild beast, and it brought 
the lion’s whelps from the lower decks. They hurled 
themselves at the venturesome Frenchmen. With pistol 
and pike, cutlass and axe, the English fought with the 
ferocity that had made them so dreaded in the past; 
when other weapons failed they fought with bare fists, 
hurling the trespassers overboard. 

It cost the Victory thirty men to repel that attack. 
But it cost the Redoutable more; and very soon not 


8 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

a Frenchman was left alive on the decks of Nelson s 
ship. 

As we have said, while the Victory w^as engaging 
the Redoutahle on one side, the Temeraire was tack- 
ling her on the other, the three ships hugging each 
other with muzzles touching muzzles. Soon after the 
attempt to board the Victory, the Temerai/re lashed her 
bowsprit to the gangway of the Redoutahle so that she 
could not escape. Then she poured in a raking fire 
until the Frenchman was compelled to surrender, though 
not before she had twice been on fire, and more than 
five hundred of her crew had been killed or wounded. 

Some of the Temeraire men then turned to deal with 
the Fougueux, which had attacked her during the fight 
with the Redoutahle. 

Captain Hardy was too busy with the Redoutahle 
to do much; but Lieutenant Kennedy quickly set a 
party to man the starboard batteries. With these they 
opened fire at about one hundred yards, and crash ! the 
Fougueux* s masts fell, her wheel was smashed, her 
rigging shattered, and she w^as so crippled that she ran 
foul of the Temeraire, whose crew lashed their foe to 
them, and Kennedy, with a couple of middies and 
fewer than thirty seamen and marines, rushed aboard 
her. 

Five hundred Frenchmen were still fresh for battle 
on the Fougueux, but the Britishers did not hesitate. 
With a bound they were on the enemy’s deck, and, 
slashing and hacking at the crowd that came up against 
them, drove them back and still back. Dozens were 
killed and others leapt overboard to escape the whirl- 
wind that had fallen upon them. The remainder scuttled 
away below, the English clapped the hatches on them, 
and the ship was won. 

Meanwhile the Victory had been pouring a heavy 



“Kennedy, with a couple of middies and fewer than thirty men, rushed aboard” 

{see page 8 ) 


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Naval Warfare— Old and New 9 

fire into the S antis sima Trinidad on one side and the 
Redoutahle on the other. Through and through the 
former was raked, her deck swept clear of men, until 
the Spaniards dived overboard and swam off to the 
Victory, whose crew helped them aboard. 

The Belleisle, which had hurled her broadside into 
the Santa Anna early in the conflict, had been pounced 
upon by about half a dozen ships of the enemy, which 
poured in a deadly fire, battering her sides, tearing her 
rigging to pieces, and twisting her mizzen-mast over 
the aft guns, putting them out of action. Sixty men 
also had been sent to their account, but the rest fought 
on with British courage. 

The Achille bore down upon her and attacked her 
aft, the Aigle, assisted by the Neptune, fell on her star- 
board, aiming at her remaining masts and bringing 
them down. 

“Crippled, but unconquered,” masts gone by the 
board, nearly all the guns useless, men mostly killed 
or wounded, the Belleisle’s few remaining men stood to 
their three or four guns and hurled defiance at the foe. 
Pounding away for all they were worth, not a man 
flinched — except at the thought that the flag had been 
shot away. They fastened a Union Jack to a pike head, 
waved it defiantly, yelled out a cheer of determination, 
and fought on again, keeping their ship in action 
throughout the battle, refusing to strike the pikehead 
flag. 

The English Neptune assailed the Buceniaure, and 
brought her main- and mizzen-masts down; then the 
Leviathan came up, and at a range of about thirty yards 
gave the French flagship a full broadside which smashed 
the stern to splinters. The Conqueror completed the 
work thus begun, and brought down the flag. 

A marine officer and five men put off from the 


10 


The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

Conqueror to take possession. Villeneuve and two chief 
officers at once gave their swords to the officer, who, 
thinking that the honour of accepting them belonged 
to his captain, refused the weapons, put the Frenchmen 
in his boat, pocketed the key of the magazine, left two 
sentries to guard the cabin doors, and then pulled away 
to rejoin his ship. For some time the little boat searched 
for the Conqueror, which had gone in quest of other 
foes. Eventually, however, the boat was picked up by 
the Mars, whose acting commander. Lieutenant Hen- 
nah, accepted the surrendered swords, and ordered 
Villeneuve and his two captains below. 

The Leviathan next tackled the Spanish San 
Augustino, which opened fire on her at a hundred yards. 
The Leviathan replied with fine effect, bringing down 
the Spaniard’s mizzen-mast and flag. Then she lashed 
herself to her foe. Clearing the way for boarders by a 
galling fire, the English captain sent across his boarding 
party. A hand-to-hand fight took place, and the 
Spaniards were steadily but surely forced over the side 
or below, and at last the ship was won. 

The French Intrepide, seeing the plight of her ally, 
now bore down on the Leviathan, raking her with fire 
as she came, and getting her boarders ready for attack. 
They did not board, for the Africa pitted herself against 
the Intrepide, and smaller though she was got the best 
of it, and the Frenchmen were compelled to strike their 
flag. 

Meanwhile the Prince and the Swiftsure were en- 
gaged with the Achille, into which many English ships 
had sent stinging shots, bringing her masts to the deck, 
and making the ship a blazing mass. Unable to quench 
the flames, the crew began cutting the masts, intending 
to heave them overboard. 

The Prince, however, gave her a broadside which 


II 


Naval Warfare— Old and New 

did the cutting, and sent the wreckage down into the 
waists. The whole ship immediately took fire. The 
Prince and the Swiftsure, ceasing fire, sent their boats 
to save the Frenchmen. It was a noble but dangerous 
act, for the heat discharged the Achille's guns, and 
many of the would-be rescuers perished as a result. 
Blazing hulk though she was, the Achille kept her 
colours flying bravely, her sole surviving senior officer, 
a middy, refusing to sFrike. The flames reached her 
magazine, and with colours flying she blew up, carry- 
ing all her remaining men heavenwards. 

Meantime, Nelson lay dying in the cockpit of the 
Victory in agony, yet rejoicing that he was victorious. 
The rank and file were kept ignorant of his condition, 
though the Admiral himself knew that the end was near, 
and urged the surgeons to give their attention to others. 
“He was in great pain, and expressed much anxiety 
for the event of the action, which now began to declare 
itself. As often as a ship struck the crew of the Victory 
hurrahed, and at every hurrah a visible expression of 
joy gleamed in the eyes and marked the countenance 
of the dying hero.” 

Every now and then Nelson asked for Hardy. “Will 
no one bring Hardy to me?*’ he cried; and when at 
last Hardy came, the two friends shook hands in silence. 

“Well, Hardy, how goes the day with us?” asked 
Nelson presently. 

“Very well, my lord. We have got twelve or four- 
teen of the enemies’ ships, but five of their van have 
tacked, and show an intention of bearing down on the 
Victory. I have therefore called two or three of our 
fresh ships round us, and have no doubt of giving them 
a drubbing.” 

“ I hope none of our ships have struck. Hardy ? ” 

“No, my lord; there is no fear of that.” 


12 


The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

“Well, I am a dead man, Hardy, but I am glad of 
what you say. Oh, whip them now you’ve got them; 
whip them as they’ve never been whipped before I ” 

Hardy then left him for a time, returning somewhat 
later to report that some fourteen ships had been taken. 

“That’s well,” cried Nelson, “though I bargained 
for twenty. Anchor, Hardy, anchor.” 

Hardy suggested that Admiral Collingwood might 
now take over the direction of affairs. 

“Not while I live, Hardy ! ” said Nelson. “Do you 
anchor.” 

“Shall we make the signal, sir?” 

“Yes,” answered Nelson. “For if I live. I’ll 
anchor.” 

For a little while Hardy looked down at his admiral. 

“Kiss me. Hardy,” said Nelson; and Hardy kissed 
him. “Don’t have my poor carcass hove overboard,” 
whispered Nelson, as Hardy leant over him. “Get 
what’s left of me sent to England, if you can manage 
it. Kiss me. Hardy.” 

Hardy kissed him again. 

“Who is that?” asked the hero. 

“It is I— Hardy.” 

“Good-bye. God bless you. Hardy. Thank God, 
I’ve done my duty.” 

Then Hardy left him — for ever. 

Nelson was turned on to his right side, muttered 
the words that he would soon be gone. Then, after a 
little silence, he sighed and struggled to speak, but all 
he could say was : 

“Thank God, I have done my duty! ” 

Then Nelson died; and England was the poorer by 
her greatest sea captain. 

Hardy took the news to Collingwood, who assumed 
command, and refused to carry out Nelson’s instructions 


Naval Warfare— Old and New 13 

to anchor, because the fact that a gale was blowing up 
would make it unsafe to do so. 

The battle was now over; the allied fleets had been 
defeated, eighteen of their ships were captured, and 
with these Collingwood stood out to sea. The enemy, 
however, recaptured four of the prizes, one escaped to 
Cadiz, some went down with all hands, others were 
stranded, and one was so unseaworthy that it was 
scuttled; and only four were taken into Gibraltar. 

Now for a different picture ! 

It was the early hours of August 28, 1914. Under 
cover of the darkness and the fog, the first and third 
flotillas of our destroyers, commanded by Commodore 
R. Y. Tyrwhitt, under orders from the Admiralty, had 
crept towards Heligoland Bight, preceded by sub- 
marines E6, E7, E8, and followed by the first battle 
cruiser squadron and the first light cruiser squadron. 

The submarines, submerged to the base of their 
conning-towers, swept into the Bight, and when the 
grey fingers of the dawn crept across the sky the 
Germans behind the, fortress saw what they imagined 
was a British submarine in difficulties, with sister ships 
alongside, and two cruisers, Lurcher and Drake, in 
attendance, intent only on giving her assistance until 
help could reach them. 

It was nothing more than a trap, into which the 
Germans fell. 

A torpedo boat destroyer swung out of the harbour, 
making full steam ahead for the apparently helpless 
submarines, who kept their hazardous positions until 
they saw that the Germans had come far away from 
the island fortress. Then, one after the other, they sank, 
and simultaneously the cruisers swung about and raced 
madly away from the German torpedo craft. 


14 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

Search though they did, the Germans found no trace 
of the submarines ; all they could see were light cruisers 
tearing away from them at full speed. These cruisers 
had acted as an additional decoy, and other destroyers 
slipped out, bent on making short work of the Britishers 
who had dared to flaunt themselves within sight of Heli- 
goland. Then, in the distance, appeared the funnels of 
other British cruisers and destroyers ; and it would seem 
that the Germans realised that they had fallen into a 
trap, and endeavoured to escape, for Commodore 
Tyrwhitt’s dispatch says : “The Arethusa and the third 
flotilla were engaged with numerous destroyers and 
torpedo boats which were making for Heligoland ; course 
thus altered to port to cut them off.” This was from 
7.20 to 7.57 A.M., when two German cruisers appeared 
on the scene and were engaged. 

It was a gallant fight. The jolly Jack Tars of Britain 
had been waiting these many days for a smack at the foe, 
who had not dared to come out and meet them until it 
seemed they were in overwhelming force ; and now, when 
the opportunity had come, they entered into the fight 
with a zest worthy of the Navy that rules the seas. They 
watched their shots ; the gunlayers worked methodically, 
as though at target practice; and when a shot went 
home, men cheered lustily and rubbed their hands with 
glee. 

And the Germans began to think they had a handful 
of work before them, despite numbers. 

They had a bigger handful soon ! Here and there, 
with startling suddenness, periscopes dotted the water, 
to be followed by the grey shells of submarines, which, 
getting the range for their torpedoes, as quickly dis- 
appeared, and became a menace to the German ships. 
It began to dawn upon the foe that they were being 
trapped. 


Naval Warfare— Old and New 15 

“Full speed ahead ! ” had come the command when 
the Germans were sighted, and on went the destroyers 
in the van. “We just went for them,” said one of the 
sailors afterwards; “and when we got within range we 
let them have it hot ! ” 

Hot it was, when at last they did come to grips. 
But before that happened other things were to take 
place. The cruiser Arethusa, leader of the third de- 
stroyer flotilla — a. new ship, by the way, only out of 
dock these forty-eight hours, of 30,000 horse-power, 
with a 2-inch belt of armour, and 4-inch and 6-inch guns 
— sped on towards the Germans, who, owing to the 
morning mist, could not see how many foes they were 
to meet, and fondly dreamed they were in the majority. 

The German cruisers, like the destroyers, were 
successfully decoyed out to sea, and then the real 
fighting began. 

The Arethusa tackled some of the destroyers and 
two cruisers, one a four-funnelled vessel. A few range- 
finding shots, then the aim was obtained, and a 
shell put the German’s bow gun out of action. The 
Fearless and the Arethusa were now in “Full action,” 
and, together with th^ destroyers of the flotilla, were 
quickly engaged in a stern piece of work. 

The saucy Arethusa didn’t budge when the second 
cruiser (two funnels) came at her, but simply fired 
away for all she was worth. For over half an hour 
she fought the Germans at a range of 3,000 yards. 
What would Nelson have thought of this long-distance 
fighting? And “it was a fight in semi-darkness, when 
it was only just possible,” wrote one of her crev/, “to 
make out the opposing grey shadow. Hammer, hammer, 
hammer, it was, until the eyes ached and smarted and 
the breath whistled through lips parched with the acrid 
fumes of picric acid.” 


i6 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

It was a gallant fight. Those deadly 6-inch guns of 
hers did their proper work, and battered at the Germans ; 
while, on the other hand, the Germans battered away 
at her ; apparently misliking her entertainment, the four- 
funnelled German turned her attention to the Fearless, 
which kept her men as busy as bees for a time. 
About ten minutes, and the Arethusa planted a 
6-inch shell on the forebridge of the German, and 
sent her scurrying away to Heligoland. But the 
Arethusa had not escaped injury in the stern fight, and 
once or twice, but for the gallant assistance of the 
Fearless and the destroyers, she seemed likely to be even 
more severely damaged, if not destroyed. As it was, a 
shell entered her engine-room, all her guns but one were 
put out of action, a fire broke out opposite No. 2 port 
gun, and was promptly handled by Chief Petty Officer 
Wrench. 

Presently the Arethusa drew off for a while, like a 
gladiator getting his wind, ready to come back again. 

And while the Arethusa^s crew were working like 
niggers putting things to rights, the Fearless standing 
by to help, the British destroyers were engaged in 
swift, destructive, rushing-^bout conflicts, now with 
opposing destroyers, now with German cruisers. Two 
of the British “wasps” tackled a couple of cruisers, for 
instance. Getting in between their larger foes, they 
placed the latter in such a quandary that they did not 
know what to do. To fire meant risking hitting each 
other, and, seizing the hazardous opportunity, the de- 
stroyers worked their will upon their opponents; and 
then, when it was not possible to do more, sped off into 
the haze. The Liberty and Laertes did good work 
during these early hours of the fighting. They opposed 
themselves to several German craft, roared out their 
thunderous welcome “to the North Sea,” and, with well- 


Naval Warfare— Old and New 17 

aimed shots, sent one boat out of the fighting line 
with a hole clean through her hull, wrenched off the 
funnel of another, smashed up the after gun of yet a 
third, and blew the platform itself to pieces. 

Aye, ’twas a glorious scrum ! Yet not without its 
nasty knocks for the Britishers. Standing on his 
bridge, working his ship, Lieutenant-Commander Nigel 
Barttelot heard the crash of a shell as it struck his mast ; 
and before he could move the whole structure had fallen 
with a crash upon the bridge, killing him and a signaller 
instantly. 

The Laertes, too, received her punishment. Her 
for’ard gun was damaged, and its crew either killed or 
wounded, while the ’midship funnel was ripped from 
top to bottom, and a shell sang its horrific way into 
the dynamo-room, while another made havoc of her 
cabin. 

Presently the Arethusa, her wreckage cleared away, 
her guns — some of them — working again, steamed into 
the battle area, and, undaunted as ever, took on another 
couple of German cruisers. “It looked as if she was in 
for a warm time,” said one of the crew; “but the for- 
tunate arrival of our battle squadron relieved the 
situation.” 

The first light cruiser squadron came first, and 
engaged the Germans. 

There is much meaning in that “fortunate arrival.” 
It had been planned and carried out to a nicety. Vice- 
Admiral Sir David Beatty and the two cruiser squadrons 
had been waiting, as arranged — waiting for the time to 
come when he should go to the aid of the torpedo 
flotillas. While waiting the squadrons were attacked 
by German submarines, which were not successful in 
wounding any of the ships. A German seaplane, scout- 
ing over the North Sea, espied the squadrons, and sped 
c 


i8 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

back to Heligoland with the news. They brought out 
reinforcements, which made the flotillas signal to the 
vice-admiral for help. This was before noon. 

The first light cruiser squadron came first, and 
swept the Germans with a tornado of fire. Then, when 
the Fearless and the first flotilla were returning, while 
the light cruiser squadron engaged the enemy, the battle 
cruiser squadron came up : the Lion, the Princess 
Royal, the New Zealand, and the Invincible, armed, 
the first two, with 13.5 guns, and the others with 
12-inch. The work that the Arethusa and her smaller 
fry had commenced was now carried to a finish. The 
German cruisers Mainz and Koln shook to the impact of 
the rain of shells poured upon them; great holes were 
torn in their sides, flames spurted out, and roared their 
angry way about the ships. The Mainz, more badly 
wounded, was in a sinking condition before the arrival 
of the battle cruisers, and now, tortured by the horrific 
projectiles, began to sink rapidly by the head. With 
a siss! siss! as the flames met water, and a roar as the 
boilers exploded, the good ship Mainz, after a plucky 
fight, went to her last anchorage, followed later by the 
Koln, 

Destroyers which had been battering at the un- 
fortunate Germans now ceased their fire, and sped 
towards them on errands of mercy, seeking to save 
their foes. A large number of the crew of over 350 
of the Mainz still lived, and the destroyers’ crews were 
horrified to see that German officers were shooting at 
their own men as the ship began to sink rapidly by the 
head. The Lurcher (Commodore Roger J. B. Keyes) 
rescued 220 of her crew. 

British sailors helping to rescue the crew told later 
that the scene on deck was terrible. Steelwork had been 
twisted and bent as hairpins bend; the deck was a 


Naval Warfare — Old and New 19 

shambles — grim testimony to the deadly character of 
the British fire. 

While the destroyers were still fighting, after the 
sinking of the Mainz and Koln, a third German 
cruiser, the Ariadne, appeared on the scene, and, after 
the destroyers had tackled her unsuccessfully, the battle 
cruisers, turning from their earlier victims, spoke to 
her in the language of death. Shells fell all about her, 
battering her sides, gouging great holes in her, wreck- 
ing her so completely that within a short time she was 
going down to keep the Mainz and Koln company. 
Later it was reported that yet a fourth cruiser had 
been set on fire. 

We must now go back to the destroyer action, which 
was no less sharp than the other. The small craft sped 
here and there, firing their 4-inch guns as rapidly as 
possible, and inflicting damage on one another. Out of 
the chaos of the fighting there shone the bright light 
of foes who would show mercy. The German destroyer 
V187 was so badly mauled that there was no hope for 
her or her crew, and the British destroyer Goshawk 
ordered the others to cease fire while she lowered her 
boats and sought to rescue the Germans, who, however, 
heeding not the humane mission of their foes, opened 
fire on the Goshawk at a range of about 200 yards. The 
German official reports eulogised this as “a glorious 
fight,” but the British tars saw in it something other 
than “glorious.” Forced to fight even when they would 
save, they opened fire in reply; and in double quick 
time the V187 was silenced, and began to settle down, 
her men being flung or leaping into the shell-whipped 
seas. British boats now endeavoured to save the lives 
of the men who had fired at them when they would 
have done so before, and several boats managed to pick 
up survivors. 


20 


The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

But, as if the blatant callousness of V187 were not 
enough, a German cruiser came swinging up, and 
opened a deadly fire upon the destroyers — the boats 
whose errand was a merciful one. The destroyers, pick- 
ing up what boats they could, made away at full speed; 
but some boats, containing Britishers and Germans, 
were left behind. At that moment, Lieut .-Commodore 
Leir, of submarine E4, appeared on the scene, and 
engaged the cruiser, which altered her course before he 
could get the range. Down went E4 for safety’s sake. 

The two boats of the Defender, left thus, were in a 
precarious situation, shells flying all about them and 
their ship far away. Then, to their amazement, there 
appeared on the surface the periscope of a submarine; 
then, presently, the conning-tower. It was E4 again. 
This time she hailed the boats, and, though she was a 
plain mark for the cruiser’s fire, she remained on the 
surface, bent on saving whom she could. She could 
not embark them all, but took a lieutenant and nine 
men of the Defender, There were also two of the 
officers and eight men of V187, unwounded, and 
eighteen wounded men, and, unable to take them on 
board, Leir left an officer and six unwounded men to 
navigate the British boats to Heligoland, taking steps 
to see that they were provided with water, biscuits, 
and a compass. It was the British sailor all over ! 

Thus it was that the Battle of the Bight was fought 
— ^and won — by the tars of Old Britain. They had 
hankered long after the outcoming of the Germans, 
who sulked in their harbours, and had had to be lured 
out. Boldly had the Germans issued forth when the 
odds had seemed all on their side, when they saw 
before them but a few small vessels; and, to their credit 
be it said, they fought well when the truth came to 
them. It was the first engagement in the war worthy 


Naval Warfare— Old and New 21 

of the name of a naval battle, and the British reaped 
the honours, though, when the tally was taken, they 
had not escaped scot free. There were battered ships 
amongst those that put into port later. The Liberty 
had fourteen great holes in her port bow, her bridge 
was smashed, her searchlight gone, her wireless installa- 
tion vanished, and nothing but a stump remained of 
her mast. The Laertes, hit four times, had had to be 
taken in tow for a while, and the Arethusa, who had 
started the fight in good style, had, as we have seen, 
received much beating about. The Fearless also had 
honourable wounds, receiving no fewer than nineteen 
hits, though none of them in a vital part. 

Beginning in the early morning, with the sea-mist 
shrouding the sea, the battle had continued for six or 
seven hours; and then the Germans, knowing them- 
selves outmatched, drew off, dropping mines as they 
went, while the British squadrons, finding there was 
nothing more to be done when the Germans had scurried 
to the shelter of their harbour, also drew away, without a 
ship lost, and with but comparatively few men hors de 
combat. During the return journey some of the British 
cruisers were attacked by submarines but escaped 
damage. The saucy Arethusa, wounded pretty badly, 
steamed away at about six knots until 7 o’clock, and 
then, finding it impossible to proceed farther, drew her 
fire in all boilers except two and called for assistance. 
Up came the Hogue, at 9.30, and took her in tow, while 
the Amethyst took in tow the Laurel, which had also 
suffered a fair amount of damage. 

Thus, with the blood surging through their veins 
as they thought of the victory won, and longing for 
the day to come when they might once more meet their 
foes, the British tars steamed to port. Five months 
later there was another action on a large scale. 


22 


The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

What would the hero of Trafalgar have said if 
anyone had suggested to him the possibility of a 
running battle in which the opponents should never 
be nearer than eight miles ? He would probably not 
have regarded it as a fight ! In those good old times 
the guns could not carry much more than a thousand 
yards, and the end very often came by boarders, and 
the capture of the ship in a hand-to-hand fight. 
Nowadays sea fights are at long range; and yet an- 
other account of a battle in the North Sea (January 24, 
1915) shows how greatly methods of warfare have 
changed. It is difficult to imagine the story of such 
a fight, as will be understood when the classes of ships 
engaged are considered : mighty battle cruisers, such 
as the Lion, whose guns can fire 10 miles, hurling a 
broadside of 10,000 lbs. twice in every minute; light 
cruisers, speedy destroyers, and submarines ; while over 
all hovered the long grey shapes of airships and the 
darting forms of seaplanes dropping bombs. And all 
the time the battling ships are tearing through the seas 
at top speed, belching forth terrible high-explosive 
shells. 

The battle of January 24 was the outcome of a 
German attempt to raid the east coast of England, 
as had been done before — Yarmouth first, then the 
Hartlepools, Scarborough, and Whitby. In the case 
of the last three towns a large number of defenceless 
women and children had been murdered by the German 
fire, and the War Lord proclaimed it a mighty victory 
for his navy. Issuing forth again, in the hope of 
achieving something as noble, the German admiral 
brought with him four battle cruisers, six light cruisers, 
and two flotillas of torpedo craft and submarines. When 
about thirty miles off the English coast they were 
sighted by a light cruiser, which engaged them and 


Naval Warfare— Old and New 23 

signalled to Admiral Beatty’s squadron the news 
of the coming of the foe. Instantly the British 
vessels, which had been cleared for action for over an 
hour (it was now 7.30 A.M.), closed up and prepared to 
chase the raiders, then 14 miles away. Admiral 
Beatty’s force, thus once more destined to play its part 
in the drama of war, consisted of the battle-cruiser 
squadron — Lion (flagship). Tiger, Princess Royal, In- 
domitable. New Zealand, and several light cruisers and 
torpedo craft. The battle-cruisers were Britain’s most 
formidable fighting ships, outcome of what proved to 
be a far-sighted policy, namely, that of big guns; the 
first three carried twenty-four 13.5-in. guns, and the 
last two sixteen 12-in. guns, against which the German 
Derfflinger (a new ship) had eight 12-in. guns, the 
Moltke and Seydlitz twenty ii-in., and the Bliicher 
twelve 8-in. guns. It will be seen, therefore, that the 
British ships had the superiority in weight and range. 

As soon as the news was brought to the admiral 
he gave instructions for the destroyers to chase the 
enemy and report his movements, while the squadron 
steered south-east, “with a view to securing the lee 
position, and to cut off the enemy, if possible.” 

The Germans, immediately they realised that they 
had been seen, and that they were about to be met by 
a large force, turned tail and ran away. It must not 
be thought that this was a sign of cowardice; far from 
it, for in all probability the German manoeuvre was 
deliberate, and in keeping with the policy that had 
arranged the larger number of heavier guns in the 
stern of the ships, so that, in the event of a running 
fight, such as this was destined to be, the fleeing ships 
would not be at a disadvantage. The British ships have 
the majority of their guns fixed to fire ahead. One great 
disadvantage attaching to pursuers lies in the fact that 


24 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

the ships fleeing before them may drop mines, into 
which the chasing ships might run. 

Working at a speed of from 28 to 29 knots an hour, 
the British squadron raced after the Germans, gradu- 
ally overhauling them, and at 20,000 yards opened 
fire upon the foe, keeping at it until, at 18,000 yards’ 
range, the shots began to tell, and the fire was returned 
by the Germans. The fight had begun in real earnest. 
The German destroyers made a plucky attack, in the 
hope of torpedoing the British ships, but the “M” 
division of British destroyers raced ahead of the cruisers 
and engaged the Germans and drove them off. The 
German destroyers belched forth great clouds of smoke, 
which screened the cruisers from their pursuers. 

The British Lion, of course, led the way. Steering 
clear of the German submarines, which were to the 
starboard, she pounded after the great cruisers, and her 
great shells began to fall in a shower upon the Blilcher, 
which, being the slowest ship, was at the tail of the 
German line. Not only the Lion, but practically every 
British ship poured in smashing salvoes. They fell 
upon her thick as hailstones, sweeping her decks, crash- 
ing into her sides, smashing upon her guns and 
wrenching them from their turrets, disabling whole 
gun crews. Funnels were sent toppling over, masts 
fell ; a shell pitched in the very heart of the ship, where 
a large number of men were gathered, and killed them 
all. Her armoured sides were riddled through and 
through; she was on fire; but she still kept up her 
replies with the guns left her, and her men cheered 
as they fought, although they knew they were fighting 
a losing battle. Instructions had been given that the 
flag was not to be struck, and that she was to go down 
with it flying. Within half an hour of the opening of 
the battle 300 or 400 men were killed or wounded. 


Naval Warfare— Old and New 25 

She was an unforgettable sight. She turned to port, 
to give her men a chance to put out the fire, but after 
awhile swung back and made after the other ships. 

Without waiting to see the result of their attack 
on the Bliicher, the British big ships pounded on their 
way after the other vessels. A devastating cyclone of 
shells fell upon the Derfflinger, which caught fire for- 
ward and had many guns put out of action, while the 
Seydlitz or the Moltke steamed on like a sheet of flame. 
The roar of the guns, the crash of the explosions, the 
thunder of the great engines of war as they romped 
through the seas, the flashes of fire as shells left the 
maws of the terrific weapons — all went to make up a 
scene of horror, of impressiveness. It was a battle 
between rival giants at giants’ distance, while simul- 
taneously another battle was raging between the smaller 
cruisers and torpedo craft. There is no doubt that one 
reason why the Germans chose a running fight was 
that they hoped to be able to lure their pursuers into 
the minefield round about Heligoland. But, after chas- 
ing them for about a hundred miles, Admiral Beatty, 
realising that it was hopeless to catch them before they 
reached the field, turned back from the great cruisers 
and set his attention upon the smaller ships, seeking 
to turn them off, drive them down upon the British 
cruisers which were in hot pursuit. He did great 
damage amongst them, despite the difficulty of the 
work, there being so many ships engaged. Though 
many of them were very seriously mauled, they suc- 
ceeded in getting to the minefield — with guns dis- 
mounted and hulls battered. 

About II o’clock the Lion had her speed reduced 
very considerably, owing to a chance shot that had 
caught her in the bows and damaged her feed-tank, 
putting her port engines out of action. Admiral Beatty 


26 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

therefore changed his flag to a destroyer, and, later, 
to the Princess Royal, which then took the foremost 
place in the fight. The Lion, whose starboard engine 
also got out of working order later, and had only one 
engine working, was shielded by the Tiger, which 
pluckily placed herself in the way of the enemy’s fire, 
and in doing so lost half a dozen of her men, though 
she gave the Germans a good battering in return. The 
Lion was then taken in tow by the Indomitable, and 
eventually taken into port. An eye-witness on the 
Tiger told of the part the Tiger played in this thrilling 
action between big ships : 

“On the gun-deck, where I was stationed, you could 
hardly see one another for the smoke, but our chaps 
stuck it like Britons. They did work hard; but they 
did it with a good heart, and I believe at one time our 
ship was engaging three of the enemy’s ships. Four 
of their ships were on fire, but they could still keep on 
firing, and I believe one or two of our poor chaps who 
got on deck to have a look at them did not live long. 
I myself was very anxious to go on deck and have a 
look, but I am glad I did not. I saw the start, and 
then went below. We lost ten of our chaps, and several 
were wounded. 

“A message came down from the deck, ‘ All hands 
on deck to see the enemy’s ship sink,’ and in less 
than five minutes after we could see nothing of her, 
and our destroyers drew near to pick up survivors. 

“Our ship at one time stood all the brunt of the 
firing, as we sheltered the leading ship in our line when 
she got winged. Still, thank goodness for everything, 
we are still alive and happy. I do not think they will 
want to meet us again.’’ 

Meanwhile, the Bliicher was living her last 
moments. Suddenly, while the Germans’ guns were 


Naval Warfare— Old and New 27 

pounding away, there slipped from behind the bigger 
ships the saucy Arethusa, intent on finishing the work 
thus well begun. The Blucher, being wounded almost 
to the death, had no way upon her, and offered a fine 
mark to torpedo. Commodore Tyrwhitt, of the 
Arethusa, knowing this, gave instructions, and, as 
the Blilcher fired her remaining guns in rapid succes- 
sion, a couple of torpedoes sped through the seas 
towards her. The second caught her amidships, ex- 
ploded, and rent a great gap in her. Listing already, 
she now simply heeled over “like a tin can filled with 
water,” as one eye-witness put it. 

It was a dramatic moment, crowded with heroism. 
Her flag was still flying, and her men were crying, 
“ Hoch ! Hoch ! ” as they lined the side of the vessel, 
ready to jump clear. From the Arethusa there came 
the cry of “Jump ! ” and almost at the same time 
hundreds of men leaped into the water, most of them 
equipped with inflated rubber lifebelts, which kept them 
afloat until the boats lowered by the English picked 
them up. While the British tars were employed in 
this humane work there swung out from Heligoland 
an airship and a seaplane, which hovered over the 
rescuing boats and dropped bombs. Such methods 
naturally aroused the anger of the British, who 
promptly, for their own sakes, had to give up the work 
of rescue, and leave many struggling Germans to find 
death when they might have had life. 

The Indomitable, before she took the Lion in tow, 
had her share of the fighting, as had the other battle- 
cruisers. After having tackled the Seydlitz, she was 
attacked by a Zeppelin which dropped a bomb about 
forty yards away from her bridge. The Indomitable gave 
her a taste of shrapnel, as did the Tiger, and she cleared 
off. Then a torpedo was launched at the Indomitable by 


28 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

the Bliicher; but the speed of the British ship saved 
her. 

In addition to the Bliicher sunk, other ships suffered 
considerable damage, as we have seen. Previously one 
of them had been engaged by the light cruiser Aurora, 
which opened a terrific fire upon her. The first shot 
carried the midship funnel clean away, and others, 
poured in rapidly, swept the decks and battered her 
hull, so that she was soon in a deplorable condition 
and was fleeing at top speed for the safety of 
harbour. Only the proximity of the minefield and the 
accident to the Lion “deprived the British fleet of a 
greater victory.” It was not until the foremost cruiser, 
the Derfflinger, was within half an hour’s run of the 
mined area that Admiral Beatty gave up the chase, 
well pleased with the work that had been done. 

It had been a great fight and a brilliant victory; 
it had shown that the British Navy was true to its 
traditions, that it could fight as well as exert silent pres- 
sure upon the foe; that the commanders were fearless 
men, and that the men behind the guns knew how to 
handle their great weapons. The feature that stands 
out most prominently is the accuracy of the British fire 
as contrasted with that of the German ; in the latter 
case shots seemed to fall anywhere but on the British 
ships, as is clear when the only casualties were seven- 
teen men wounded on the Lion, one officer and nine 
men killed, and two officers and eight men wounded 
on the Tiger; and four men killed and one man 
wounded on the Meteor, which ship was attacked by 
the Zeppelin, while none of the ships were at all badly 
damaged, and would be ready for sea again in a few 
days. 

A fine victory, well won, and at little cost ! 


THE MEN WHO DISCOVERED THE 
WORLD 

Stories of the Early Voyagers 

I T is difficult for us who live in these days of swift 
travel, wireless telegraphy, palatial ships, and so 
forth, to realise what it meant to go a-voyaging in the 
Middle Ages and thereabouts. Then men set out chart- 
less, at one time compassless, in ships which were mere 
cockle-boats, to traverse unknown seas (there are no 
unknown seas to-day !) in quest of new lands, not 
knowing really whether there were any new lands to 
discover. They went, as it were, into the darkness 
of the unknown, with all its terrors and dangers; and 
going, discovered the world. 

Tradition had it that out in the Atlantic were some 
islands called by the ancients the Fortunate Islands; 
and the thirst for wider geographical knowledge came 
with the discovery of these, and the discovery of 
Madeira, in the fifteenth century; and out of the mists 
of the legends there shone elusive islands which, though 
men sought, they could not find. Then, as men grew 
bolder, and travelled overland to Cathay, or China, to 
bring back wonderful stories, with all the glamour of 
the East about them, Europeans cried for more and 
more light upon the world beyond Europe. 

And the age of discovery began. 

In the mind of every voyager was the one great 
objective — Cathay. But the way there? One school 

29 


30 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

said westwards ; the other said that only by circum- 
navigating the coasts of Africa could Cathay be reached. 
We know now, as they discovered after many, many 
years, that both routes led to the East, but that in 
between Europe and Asia, via the West, lay a mighty 
continent of whose existence they had never dreamed ; 
and which, when they did discover it, they thought was 
Asia. 

We cannot go into details of the many voyages 
which were undertaken both to the south and the west ; 
we must content ourselves with the first voyage round 
the Cape of Good Hope, the first sea trip to China, 
and the first voyage of the great Columbus. 

It fell to the lot of Bartholomew Diaz to achieve the 
first of these great epoch-marking events in the world’s 
history. Many men, under the patronage of Prince 
Henry the Navigator, of Portugal, had passed along 
the African coast, and by 1484 Diego Cam had partly 
explored the Congo ; but two years later Diaz, heedless 
of the fears and warnings of his crew, sailed past the 
Congo, with the firm determination to get into the 
Indian Ocean, or at least to pass the extremity of Africa, 
if there were an extremity. Of that no one was sure. 
Diaz went round that point without knowing it; a 
mighty storm caught him, and carried his frail ship 
before it, and when the gale passed over Diaz found 
himself off a coast which trailed away eastwards and 
ever eastwards. His men, fearful of they knew not 
what, beseeched him to turn back, but for several days 
Diaz held on his way. This eastward trend of the 
coast meant something, though what it was he could 
not say. At last the crew refused to go any farther; 
the unknown held too many terrors for them, and they 
considered they had done sufficient. They had gone 
farther, they knew, than any mariners before them. 



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Men who Discovered the World 31 

Why keep on at the risk of being lost? So Diaz had 
reluctantly to give way. He turned his vessel round, 
passed down the coast, going southward, with the land 
on his right — to him a significant fact. He realised its 
full significance later when, passing a great promontory, 
which, because of the storms that prevailed there, he 
called the Cape of Storms, he found the land still on 
his right, while the ship was sailing northwards. He 
had been round Africa ! 

Promptly Diaz landed, and, as was the custom, 
erected a pillar in the name of the King of Portugal, 
and thus laid claim to the new land he had discovered. 
Then home he went, full of joy at his achievement, to 
receive a mighty welcome at Court when he had told 
his story. The name of the southernmost cape thus 
discovered was renamed the Cape of Good Hope; and 
thus it has been known ever since. 

One would have thought that this voyage would 
have spurred on other voyagers to follow in the track 
thus laid down; but for some reason or other it was 
ten years before an expedition was dispatched to carry 
it farther and try to reach Cathay by that route. Vasco 
da Gama was the leader of this expedition, which left 
the Tagus on July 7, 1497, five years after Columbus 
had set out for the unknown West. It consisted of 
three ships, which became separated soon after starting, 
only to meet at Cape Verde Islands. Then for four 
months they fought their way through storms until 
they reached St. Helena, where, although they were 
badly in need of provisions, they could get none, be- 
cause the natives were so unfriendly. So southward 
they went, and at last came to the Cape of Good Hope, 
which it took them two days to sail round, owing to the 
terrific storm that raged. The crew, terrified at the 
tumultuous seas, prayed da Gama to turn back. 


32 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

“We cannot pass this awful cape ! ” they cried. 

“If God preserve us,” answered da Gama boldly, 
“we will pass the cape and make our way to Cathay. 
For that honour will be given us, and we shall get 
much wealth.” 

But, though he thus appealed to their cupidity, the 
crew were not to be calmed; and their dissatisfaction 
gave rise to conspiracy. They intended to mutiny, 
and force da Gama to turn back, or else kill him out 
of hand, and then do what they wanted to do. 

Da Gama, however, received information of the plot 
from some of the men who were still faithful to him, and 
were willing to follow him where he would lead. Know- 
ing that stern measures would be necessary now that 
softer ones had failed, da Gama plotted on his own 
account. He had each man brought into his cabin to 
discuss the matter, and as soon as a head showed inside 
the door the man was seized and put in irons. In this 
way every one of the dissatisfied men was taken 
prisoner; and da Gama found himself left with a mere 
handful of men to work the ship. Yet did he persist 
in going on ; he would not be deterred, and, though all 
worked hard in face of what they thought was certain 
death, yet they weathered the cape, and presently were 
on the way up the east coast of Africa. Then da Gama 
freed his prisoners, who were shamefaced as they came 
on deck, to find themselves in this new sea, safely past 
the storm they had feared. 

On Christmas Day, after having been in at various 
places, da Gama came to Natal, named thus in honour 
of the Nativity, broke up one of his ships there, as 
she was unseaworthy, and then went on, reaching 
Mozambique on March lo. Here he met trouble again. 
Mozambique was in the possession of the Moors, who 
did a fine trade with the Indies and the Red Sea, and. 


Men who Discovered the World 33 

naturally, resented the intrusion of the Portuguese. 
They saw their trade being taken from them. They 
therefore did all they could to destroy or capture the 
intrepid voyagers, who, however, outwitted them every 
time. At each place where they put in they fell foul of 
the Moors, until they reached Melinda, where they were 
received with honour, and were able to secure as many 
provisions as they wanted. 

Da Gama, always with his eyes open to discover 
what commercial advantages were to be gained from his 
voyage, saw with delight that at Melinda there were 
many large ships which bore the riches of India in their 
holds ; and, realising that that meant much to Portugal, 
as soon as the monsoons would allow him, hurried on 
his way across the Indian Ocean, having secured the 
services of a good native pilot. On May 20, 1498, the 
two ships reached Calicut — the first vessels which had 
arrived in India by the direct sea route. 

It was an epoch-marking accomplishment, for it 
opened up the Far East to Europe in a way that had not 
been done before ; trade could be carried on much more 
easily than by the overland route, with its many dangers. 
All the riches of the East — spices, peppers, and what not 
— were to be had by the Portuguese now. The commer- 
cial importance of the voyage was greater than that of 
any voyage yet undertaken, for even that of Columbus 
had not begun to bear the fruit it was to bear later on. 

Da Gama, however, found that things were not so 
rosy as they had seemed; the Moors held the trade of 
Calicut in their hands. It was the trading centre of 
the merchants of Ceylon and the Moluccas — indeed, of 
all the Malabar coast — and the Moors there, like those 
at Mozambique, feared the coming of the Europeans. 
When they discovered that da Gama had obtained per- 
mission from the zamorin, or native chief, to trade, they 

D 


34 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

plotted for his destruction, inducing the zamorin to take 
him prisoner and capture his ships, telling him that 
these white men would surely come in their hundreds 
and take possession of his territory. Of course, the 
native viewed the prospect with anything but pleasure, 
and when da Gama, laden with rich gifts, landed, he 
tried to capture him. Da Gama, however, slipped 
through his fingers, reached his ships, and sailed away, 
vowing to return and to take vengeance. 

Leaving Calicut in a rage, the voyager traded with 
another chief at Cannanore, and, having laden his 
vessels with rich spices and peppers, set out on the 
return voyage, reaching Lisbon in September, 1499; and 
the whole nation went wild with delight at the glorious 
yista opened to it. 

Da Gama went back to Calicut later on to take his 
revenge. He allied the King of Cannanore with him, 
and wrought havoc with the zamorin’s trading vessels; 
then sailed to Cochin China, where he established a 
factory — the first factory in the East,- and the beginning 
of Portuguese power in the Orient. 

We must now go back a few years, and glance at 
the story of the first voyage of Columbus, the man who 
stands out as a landmark in the history of the world. 
He marks the beginning of the new geographical know- 
ledge; the old world is one side of him, the new the 
other. For years he had been studying all the maps and 
charts that he could get hold of, and had imbibed the 
new knowledge that was being taught regarding the 
shape of the earth, until at last he came to believe that 
Asia could be reached by sailing to the west. He tried 
this Court and that, only to receive rebuffs and meet 
with delays that sickened him. He sent his brother 
Bartholomew to the King of England; but his mes- 
senger was captured by pirates, and when he was 


Men who Discovered the World 35 

released, and proceeded on his way to the English 
Court, where his proposal was accepted, it was too late ; 
Christopher Columbus had set forth upon his venture 
perilous, under the patronage of Ferdinand and Isabella 
of Spain, who, after much vacillation, and not a little 
treachery, had agreed to father the expedition, which 
consisted of three small vessels. These were the Santa 
Maria, on which Columbus himself sailed, the Pinta, 
commanded by Martin Alonzo Pinzon, and the Nina, 
captained by Pinzon’s brother, Vincente Yanez Pinzon. 

After receiving the blessing of the Church, the ex- 
pedition set sail from Palos with a pressed crew, for few 
men could be found willing to embark on such a 
desperate venture. In less than a week they were com- 
pelled to put in at the Canaries to refit the ships, which 
had been buffeted about by adverse winds and stormy 
seas. When this work was done, Columbus set out 
again, despite the murmurings of his pressed crew, who 
often cast longing eyes back to the East, hardly daring 
to think of what might await them in the West, whither 
men had not ventured before. The unknown held dread 
terrors for them, and at every league they became more 
disaffected, so that Columbus found it necessary to keep 
two reckonings — one correct, for himself, and the other 
incorrect, for the satisfaction of the crews. His own 
showed the real distance from home ; theirs showed them 
that they were nearer home than they had imagined 
themselves to be. 

Two hundred leagues west of the Canaries a ship’s 
mast was seen floating, and the frightened crews became 
more scared than ever ; they took it for a portent of their 
own fate. Then the needle of the compass showed a 
variation ; it ceased to point to the North Star, and this 
was the most dreadful thing of all to these men, who 
knew nothing of hemispheres. Columbus did his utmost 


36 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

to cheer and inspire them with confidence, telling them 
of the glory that awaited them when the voyage was 
over, and assuring them that they could not be a very 
long way from land. As if to prove him true, next day, 
September 14, two birds hovered round the ships; later 
weeds were seen floating on the surface of a kind that 
grow on river banks and among rocks ; then, later still, 
more birds were seen — birds that they knew never slept 
on the sea. And all these things seemed to be heralds 
of land. 

So the dissatisfied crew took heart again, and, with 
a steady breeze helping them, the ships sped on their 
unknown way, every man eagerly looking out across 
the vast sea in the hope of being the first to sight the 
land, the reward for which was to be a pension. 

But as day succeeded day, and no land was seen, 
the spirits of the adventurers drooped, and when they 
ran into a vast sea of weeds, which made it difficult for 
the vessels to hold on their way, all hopes of ever 
reaching home again were dashed to the ground. Then 
the wind dropped, and the ships were becalmed. Never 
did Fate play so scurvy a trick with a mariner as it 
did with Columbus, who knew that the success of his 
voyage — the great ambition of his life — depended upon 
the men who sailed with him. He heard their murmur- 
ings, knew that it would not be long before they broke 
out into open mutiny; but still he would not swerve 
from his purpose. 

Then one day they came to him with determination 
in their eyes and black murder in their hearts. They 
would go back, they said ; they would venture no farther 
on this mad voyage which could lead to nowhere but 
death. They had, indeed, made up their minds to pitch 
him overboard if he would not turn the ship about and 
go home. 


Men who Discovered the World 37 

Columbus, firm in his own belief that land lay to 
the west, and determined that he would not turn back 
until he had seen it, stood before the mutineers boldly. 
He argued with them, coaxed them, even bullied them, 
vowed he would hold on to the course he had mapped 
out. Then, seeing that he must temporise, he promised 
that, if they would stand by him for three more days, 
he would turn back if no land were discovered. He 
gained his point ; the crew returned to their duties, and, 
by the greatest good luck, shortly afterwards new signs 
of land came to cheer the men. 

Besides a quantity of fresh weeds, such as grow in 
rivers, they saw a green fish of a kind that keeps about 
rocks, then a branch of thorn with berries on it, and 
recently separated from the tree, floated by them. Then 
they picked up a reed, a small board, and, above all, 
a staff, artificially carved. 

And where there had been mutiny and threats there 
was now discipline and rejoicing; and no man mur- 
mured, or thought of the distance they had come. All 
were eager to be the first to catch sight of the land they 
believed to be near. Columbus himself, overwhelmed 
with joy at the thought that triumph was at hand, did 
not sleep that night, and had the ships hove to, lest 
they miss the land in the night darkness. On each 
vessel every man was wide awake, straining his 
eyes through the darkness. At about one o’clock 
Columbus thought that he saw a light shining in 
the west, far away from the ships. He immediately 
pointed it out to; the men on his vessel; but with 
one exception they attached little importance to it. 
They thought themselves fools when, an hour later, 
a sailor cried ; 

“ Land ! Land ! ” And, pointing, showed them a 
dim outline on the horizon. Daylight came, and with 


38 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

it clearer vision ; and before them stretched a low, tree- 
covered island. 

The sight of it drove them almost wild with joy. 
Here, after weeks of voyaging through seas unknown, 
they had come to land, when they had told themselves 
there was no land to be found, when they had harboured 
thoughts of murder against the man who led them. 
They threw themselves on deck at his feet, and implored 
his forgiveness ; and Columbus knew that he had 
these men fast in his grip, that they would follow him 
anywhere. 

As for himself, his pleasure knew no bounds ; all the 
dreams of the years were to be fulfilled, all his hopes 
were to be realised, the glory of reaching Asia via the 
west was to be his. Had he but known ! Had he but 
realised that something even greater than this had been 
achieved; that near at hand lay a vast continent un- 
dreamt of by his fellows, despite the tradition that the 
Norsemen had hundreds of years before found a country 
to the west, far north from this spot. 

On October 12, 1492, Columbus, in all the glory of 
his official robes as representative of the majesty of 
Spain, landed on the island with his men and the officials 
sent by the King to give authority to the expedition. 
The Royal Standard of Spain was planted, and the 
adventurer fell upon his knees, kissed the ground, and 
declared the land to belong to the dominions of the 
Spanish sovereigns. 

The island was inhabited, and from the natives 
Columbus learned that it was named Guanahani. The 
Spaniards renamed it San Salvador — its present name. 
It is one of the group known as the Bahamas, at the 
entrance of the Gulf of Mexico. 

The natives themselves, when they saw the strange 
ships coming towards the island, fled, not knowing what 


Men who Discovered the World 39 

they might be, for never had they seen anything 
like them. As they were not pursued, however, they 
plucked up enough courage to come back, and very 
soon were making friends with the new-comers, who, 
thinking they were on one of the islands off the coast 
of India, called the natives Indians — the name still 
borne by the aborigines of the New World. 

Almost every one of the natives was bedecked with 
ornaments made of gold ; and the Spaniards were eager 
to find out whence the metal came. The natives told 
them by signs that it came from the south — far away; 
and the three vessels were presently ploughing the seas 
again, exploring the coast of San Salvador, by the aid 
of several guides. Other islands were seen in the neigh- 
bourhood, and these, too, were explored, Columbus 
believing that they tallied with Marco Polo’s description 
of certain islands lying off China. But no trace of gold 
was found; each time the natives pointed them to the 
south, and referred to a great king, whom Columbus 
imagined to be the Great Khan. 

Then one day he gathered that near at hand was a 
great island called Cuba, and from the description given 
him believed it to be Cipango (Japan), which reports 
had credited with vast riches — gold and precious stones. 
So to Cuba the three ships sailed, reaching the island 
at the end of October, and taking possession of it in 
the name of the King of Spain. 

Here the natives, after a time, received him kindly, 
and the answers to the sign-questions he put to them 
made him more convinced than ever that this was 
Cipango. He therefore searched it, seeking for the 
Great Khan ; but at last gave up in despair, and sailed 
off to discover other islands. At this time Martin 
Pinzon, in the Pinta, deserted him, and, although 
Columbus waited many days for his return, he did not 


40 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

come back ; and when, in December, Columbus set sail, 
he went with only two ships. On December 6 they 
sighted a large island, which, because of its beauty and 
similarity with Spain, they named Hispaniola. Here, 
again the natives were friendly, and parted with many 
of their gold ornaments in exchange for little trinkets 
the mariners had brought with them. What filled them 
with joy that they could hardly contain was the news 
that the island abounded in riches. Gold, they were 
told, was to be obtained in plenty; and Columbus, who 
had taken the island in the name of Spain, resolved, 
when misfortune robbed him of another of his ships, 
to leave some of his men behind to learn the language 
of the natives, trade with them for gold, and explore the 
island for gold mines. 

The disaster, which left him with only one ship, 
occurred through negligence. The Santa Maria was 
wrecked, and Columbus and his crew only escaped with 
great difficulty. By hard work they managed to get all 
the goods and guns out of her before she went to 
pieces, and with the latter Columbus built a fort for 
the security of the men he intended to leave behind, 
calling it La Navidad. 

Then, on January 4, 1493, Columbus set sail from 
Hispaniola in the smallest of the vessels he had come 
out with, namely, the Nina, steering eastward along 
the coast. Presently he fell in with Pinzon, whom he 
reproved for his desertion. Pinzon asserted that he had 
been separated in a storm, but actually he had left 
Columbus, intending to return home and claim the 
honours that were due to his leader. Columbus, how- 
ever, rather than have bitterness aroused, hid his anger, 
and the two ships sailed in company until February i, 
when a terrific gale separated them again. 

So dreadful was the storm that Columbus despaired 


Men who Discovered the World 41 

of ever reaching home with his wonderful news; and 
many were the vows taken as to what the mariners 
would do if Heaven spared them. Lots were cast as 
to who should undertake a pilgrimage to Our Lady 
of Guadalope, and it fell to Columbus. But the storm 
still held on. Then they all vowed to go in their 
shirts to a church of Our Lady, if she would vouchsafe 
them a safe voyage home. 

The poor Nina, tossed about, seemed as though she 
would turn over at every big wave that broke upon her ; 
all her provision casks were empty, and so she was in a 
poor way through lack of ballast. Columbus solved that 
problem by filling the casks with water, which steadied 
the ship, and enabled her to ride out the storm, during 
which Columbus had been afraid lest he should never 
reach Spain with the wonderful news of his discovery. 
He therefore wrote down an account on parchment, 
which he signed and sealed, wrapped in oilcloth and 
wax, and consigned to the deep in a cask. Another copy 
was packed in a similar way, and set upon the top of the 
poop, so that if the Nina went down the cask might 
float and stand a chance of carrying its precious con- 
tents to some port, or be picked up by some ship. But, 
fortunately, the storm eased off, and presently they 
reached harbour at St. Mary’s, one of the Azores. 

The mariners, exhausted after their struggle with 
the storm, but grateful for having been able to come 
through it, saw a hermitage on a hill, and resolved that 
some of them should undertake a pilgrimage of thanks 
at once. So half the ship’s crew went ashore in their 
shirts, carrying candles; but hardly had they landed 
when the Portuguese Governor of St. Mary’s came 
down with a large body of soldiers and took them 
prisoners. The Portuguese were jealous of the great 
sailor, and what he had achieved. 


42 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

Columbus was angry at this treachery. He vowed 
that if his men were not given back to him, he would 
land the rest and sack the whole island. The Governor 
gave in. 

Leaving these inhospitable shores, the mariners 
sailed away for home, only to meet with another storm 
which caused them to make more vows. Then the 
sailors worked hard, and managed to get the ship run- 
ning before the storm, which drove her into the Tagus. 

Forced to take shelter in another Portuguese port, 
therefore, this time Lisbon, Columbus went ashore, 
where the King of Portugal received him with many 
expressions of delight and congratulation, though be- 
neath the smiling face was a jealous heart. Portugal 
had taken so great a part — had been the pioneer, in 
fact — of the exploration of the century, that the king 
felt that this accomplishment of Columbus was a per- 
sonal affront ! His counsellors advised him that the 
best thing to do was to kill Columbus and his men out 
of hand, and, taking his charts, send an expedition out 
to take possession of the new lands. 

King John, however, would not consent to the mur- 
der of Columbus, whom he dismissed; and then ordered 
his own mariners to hurry off with an expedition to 
take by force of arms the lands which had been dis- 
covered for Spain. It may be said that when the ques- 
tion of ownership of these lands was laid before the 
Pope of Rome, that arbiter of the fate of people and 
nations in the fifteenth century, the Portuguese were 
made to understand that Spain had the prior claim on 
the new territory. 

It was on March 15 that Columbus arrived at Palos, 
less than eight months after he had set out from that 
port on a voyage from which few ever believed he 
would return. And now, here he was ! Great crowds 


Men who Discovered the World 43 

met him and hailed him, and marched in procession 
with him to the church, where he gave thanks to Heaven 
for the success of his voyage. Then, he sent a letter 
to the king, who commanded him to attend Court, where 
he was received with all due honour, and told his won- 
derful story which thrilled the king and queen, and 
soon set all Spain by the ears. He had brought many 
evidences of the truth of his tale, including several 
natives and many gold ornaments ; and according to the 
terms of the engagement entered into, he was appointed 
Governor-General of all the lands discovered. Then, 
still believing that he had found the way to the East, 
he went out again on September 25, 1493, discovering 
new islands, and going to Hispaniola, which he found 
was rich with gold. His fort had been destroyed, 
however, and his men killed by the natives. With his 
adventures during this voyage we have no time to deal. 
There was dissatisfaction amongst some of his followers, 
and accusations were made against him which necessi- 
tated his going back to Spain to clear himself, which he 
succeeded in doing. In 1498 he was allowed to go out 
again, and it was on this voyage that he discovered the 
mainland of America, although he never knew it. First 
he landed on an island which he called Trinidad (its 
present name), in honour of the Holy Trinity, and 
from there he could see land, which, believing it to be 
an island, he called Isla Santa (Holy Island). It was, 
as a matter of fact, the mainland of America. He 
went down the coast as far as Grenada, and began to 
think that the length of it pointed to the fact that it 
was more than an island : that it must be the mainland 
of Asia. 

Passing over the trials of Columbus which followed 
upon the accusations made against him at Court, we 
must go on to a brief r^sum6 of his fourth and last 


44 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

voyage. On this, which started from Cadiz in IViay, 
1502, he went seeking a strait by which he could 
get farther east. He reached Honduras, then later, 
Veragua and Nicaragua, the farthest point reached being 
El Retrete, when he sailed for Veragua again, thence 
to Hispaniola. Many troubles beset him. Jealous fol- 
lowers brought him sorrows; disorders at Hispaniola 
brought him displeasure at Court, and he sailed for 
home, reaching Spain in November, 1504, to die two 
years later in neglect; “no local annals mention even 
his death.” And he, the greatest mariner who had 
ever lived, the man who had brought to Spain — although 
no one realised it then — a New World, with all its 
treasures. 


SOME EARLY BUCCANEERS 

The Beginning of Buccaneering 

T he buccaneers were educated in a hard school. 

From being peaceful hunters in the woods of 
Hispaniola they developed into hunters on the seas, 
seeking more valuable game than oxen. They took up 
this new profession from a sense of being ill-treated, 
and primarily with the object of obtaining vengeance. 

In the early part of the seventeenth century there 
were on the island of Hispaniola a number of French- 
men who lived by buccaneering — a word derived from 
the Indian word boucan, meaning, first, the hut in which 
the flesh of oxen was smoked, and, secondly, the 
wooden frame on which the meat was dried. Eventu- 
ally the hunters themselves received the name of 
buccaneers, from which it will be seen that there was 
nothing sinister in the name or profession at the outset. 
In course of time larger numbers of Frenchmen gathered 
at Hispaniola to follow the wild industry, and the 
Spanish rulers of the island came to the conclusion that 
they would rid Hispaniola of them. 

The buccaneers at the best were not an inviting- 
looking crowd, nor were they the most gentle of men. 
Their mode of life made them rough and wild, and 
their attire gave them an appearance of ruffianism. 
Long blouses or shirts, covered with grease and blood- 
stains, and held in at the waist by strips of green hide ; 
short drawers that reached only half-way down the 

45 


46 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

thigh, sandals of hog’s skin or bull’s hide; short guns, 
called “buccaneering-pieces,” slung from their shoul- 
ders, short sabres from their waists, calabash powder- 
horns and skin bullet pouches hanging at either side, 
with mosquito nets rolled up at the waist — imagine 
men thus rigged out, with unkempt hair and not too 
clean a skin, and you have buccaneers in all their glory. 
Certainly they were not calculated to inspire confidence 
when one met a little band of about a dozen out 
hunting, with dogs following the quarry. But, at any 
rate, they were comparatively peaceful — except when, 
after a successful hunt, and a still more successful piece 
of trading by which they got rid of their spoils, they 
were out on a carousal. 

Now, as we have suggested, the Spaniards grew 
jealous of the growing prosperity of the buccaneers; 
had the latter been Spanish, all would have been well, 
but the Dons, ever since the New World had been dis- 
covered for King Ferdinand, had sought to keep it and 
its wealth for themselves; so that, when the Frenchmen 
on Hispaniola grew in numbers and wealth, it seemed 
to the Spaniards a case for repressive measures. They 
therefore instituted mounted patrols of lancers, armed 
with lances. There were some four hundred of these, 
and their work was to harry the buccaneers as much and 
as often as possible. 

This warfare between the lancers and the buccaneers 
went on for many years; but the Spaniards found that 
the hunters refused to be intimidated; and if the truth 
were known, they probably enjoyed the occasional bout 
with the Spaniards. In any case, they would not give 
up their hunting for all the lancers in Hispaniola. The 
Spaniards therefore resorted to other means. If the 
buccaneers would not go, then their livelihood should 
be taken from them, and the powers that were in Spain 


Some Early Buccaneers 47 

sent orders for the destruction of all the wild cattle 
in Hispaniola. 

The orders were carried out to the letter, and the 
buccaneers, finding themselves without the means o£ 
living and trade, shook the dust of Hispaniola from 
their feet, and in 1637 made their way to the island of 
Tortuga, about six miles to the north of Hispaniola. 
There their already large numbers were increased by 
the coming of a cosmopolitan crowd of ruffians, till, 
feeling themselves strong enough, they determined to 
take vengeance on Spain for having cast them adrift. 

They fell upon Hispaniola, not once nor twice, but 
time after time, until the Dons came to the conclusion 
that Tortuga must be under the yoke of Spain and the 
buccaneers be swept aw^ay. So, timing their descent 
well, they went over to Tortuga when the French 
were away on the mainland, hunting, and the English 
were far off on a cruise. Landing soldiers, they took 
the island within an hour, seizing a large number of 
hunters before they had time to defend themselves. 
Some they killed out of hand, others they made captive, 
but a good many succeeded in escaping to certain 
hiding-places, whence, with the coming of night, they 
slipped down to the shore and hurried off to the mainland 
in canoes. 

The Spaniards, feeling that this vigorous action 
would be sufficient to keep Tortuga within bounds, 
sailed back to Hispaniola. But, instead of having 
quashed the buccaneers, they found that they had but 
added fuel to the fire, for when the rovers came back 
from cruising and hunting, and discovered the condition 
of their island, they were filled with anger. They went 
mad ! Off to the French island of St. Christopher they 
sailed, and Governor De Poncy, falling in with their 
plans, sent an expedition to Tortuga, which was re- 


48 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

captured, and put in such a state of defence that the 
disillusioned Dons had a shock next time they went over 
to carry out a second attempt at terrorism. Two hundred 
Spaniards bit the dust that day, and the buccaneer — the 
real buccaneer — was born. 

For the Spaniard was successful in his efforts to kill 
the hunters* trade; he stamped out the trading-hunter 
and gave life to a particularly romantic kind of pirate- 
freebooter. The men of Tortuga fell to preying upon 
the shipping of Spain. They were determined to have 
their revenge. 

It would appear from all accounts that the first 
successful buccaneer who took to sea-roving was one 
Pierre le Grand, a native of Dieppe, who had found his 
way to the New World in quest of fortune. Baffled in 
his attempts to make the smiling lands yield up their 
wealth, he gathered a congenial company about him, and 
went to sea in a small boat holding himself and a crew 
of twenty men. The exploit that made him famous 
was that by which he captured the vice-admiral of a 
Spanish fleet near Cape of Tiburon, to the west of 
Hispaniola. 

They had, it seems, been at sea a good while on the 
look-out for a prize worth having, and, finding none, 
were getting disheartened — ^and hungry, incidentally, 
seeing that they had used up most of their rations. 
Then, like a gift from the gods, there came into view 
a Spanish fleet, with a large ship standing some distance 
off from the rest. Pierre decided that it would be 
impious to let such an opportunity slip. He knew that 
it was a case of long odds, because the Spaniard was 
a fine vessel, and no doubt well manned; but, nothing 
venture, nothing have ! So, waiting until the dusk of 
evening, Pierre, who had received solemn oaths from 
his companions that they would stand by him to the 


Some Early Buccaneers 49 

last, sailed towards his prey, hoping in his heart that 
the Dons might be unprepared for battle. 

He did not know it then, but later he found out that 
the captain of the ship had had the little cockle-boat 
pointed out to him, with the suggestion that it might 
be a pirate craft; whereupon the gallant sailor had 
exclaimed : 

“What, then, must I be afraid of such a pitiful thing 
as that is ? No ! though she were a ship as big and as 
strong as mine is ! 

Determined to hazard all upon a gambler’s throw, 
when Peter drew near the great Spaniard, under cover 
of the twilight, he made his surgeon bore holes in the 
sides of his boat, so that, with their own vessel sinking 
quickly beneath them, his men might be impelled to 
put all their energy into the attempt to board the Spanish 
ship. 

So, with “all or nothing ” as the unspoken battle-cry, 
the buccaneers swarmed up the sides of the ship, hurled 
themselves aboard without being seen, and rushed pell- 
mell to the captain’s cabin, where they found him play- 
ing cards. 

Pierre le Grand held the trump card — in the shape of 
a loaded pistol, which he promptly presented at the 
captain’s head, calling upon him to surrender. 

“Jesus bless us!” cried the Spaniard. “Are these 
devils, or what are they ? ” 

The uninvited guests showed what they were; while 
Peter the Great kept the captain quiet, others rushed to 
the gun-room, seized all the arms, and then dispersed 
about the ship, taking prisoner whoever preferred that 
to being killed out of hand. There was no gainsaying 
them, and the captain gave in, with the result that Pierre 
found himself master of a fine ship filled with treasure, 
and a crew that he hardly knew what to do with. He 

£ 


50 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

solved the problem by setting ashore all he didn’t want, 
and the rest he kept on to sail the ship to France. For 
the gay buccaneer discovered that he was rich enough 
to retire, and never again showed his face in the New 
World. 

But if he did no more pirating himself, he set fire 
to the buccaneers of Tortuga, who told themselves that 
what Pierre le Grand had done they could do. If they 
had but ships! They were going to set up in “busi- 
ness” that required good craft, and there they were 
with only canoes. Well, canoes would do to get them 
where they could find suitable ships, and, pushing off 
day after day, the buccaneers cruised about Hispaniola 
and the neighbourhood, seizing small Spanish vessels 
carrying tobacco and hides. These they took back to 
Tortuga, disposed of the cargoes profitably, fitted out 
the vessels, and set out to sea again, now to seek larger 
ships ; with the result that, in a couple of years, a score 
of buccaneer ships were sailing the seas proudly, taking 
toll of the Spaniards for having stopped their peaceful 
livelihood. 

Of these earlier buccaneers we must mention another 
Peter — Pierre Fran(;:ois. Like Peter the Great, his fore- 
runner, he had been cruising about a long time without 
a satisfactory prize turning up; and as away at Tortuga 
were a number of men — whom we, in these modern 
days, call “duns” — waiting for him to settle up various 
little accounts, he thought it behoved him, for his 
creditors’ sake, to garner a harvest that was worth while. 

So, standing out from the neighbourhood of 
Hispaniola, Pierre Francois ventured farther afield. 
Away down at Ranceiras, near the River Plate, there 
was a fine rich bank of pearl, to which year «fter year 
the Spaniards sent about a dozen large ships a-pearling, 
each squadron having a man-o’-war to protect it. 



“ Promptly boarded the Vice-AdmiraJ* ‘ Surrender I ^ yelled the buccaneers 

{see page 51 ) 



Some Early Buccaneers 51 

Pierre Fran9ois felt he would like to have some of 
the pearls which other men had obtained. When he 
came up with the fleet, he found the warship, the 
Capitana, of twenty-four guns and a couple of hundred 
men, lying half a league away from the rest of the 
vessels; and, well versed in the ways of the wily 
Spaniard, he knew that the man-o’-war would be certain 
to hold the greater part of the harvest of the sea. Where- 
fore, of course, Pierre decided that nothing less than 
the Capitana would pay him for the trip down the coast. 

But first he must put himself in the way of being 
strong enough to take the war vessel, and to this end he 
resolved to capture one of the other ships to begin with. 
Pretending that his ship was a Spanish craft, he pulled 
down his sails, rowed close to the shore till he reached 
the pearl-bank, and then promptly boarded the Vice- 
Admiral, of eight guns and threescore men. 

“Surrender! ” yelled the buccaneers. 

“Never!” cried the Spaniards, and fell to fighting 
stubbornly; and then did what they said they wouldn’t 
do — they surrendered. 

So far so good. Pierre was elated. But he did 
want that man-o’-war ! 

First he sank his own vessel, which was in a pretty 
bad way. Then he hoisted the Spanish flag on his prize 
and sailed away. The captain of the Capitana, fearing 
that one of his convoy was running off with treasure 
— those Spaniards never trusted each other ! — set sail 
after the runaway. Pierre let him come, and then, when 
within hailing distance, made his prisoners yell : 

Victoria! Victoria! We have taken the thieves!” 

Whereupon the Capitana, believing that everything 
was all right, hove to, drew off, and disappeared in the 
darkness, promising to send to fetch the prisoners away 
in the morning. 


52 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

During the night Francois decided to slip away. 
Perhaps he didn’t like the look of the Capitana after 
all; perhaps he was satisfied with his haul. He should 
have been, for it contained pearls of the value of 100,000 
gold pieces of eight, and a large store of provisions. 
But he had come to the end of his lucky lode, for the 
Capitana, having, apparently, grown suspicious, sud- 
denly hoisted sail and followed in pursuit. Pierre hoped 
to be able to show a clean pair of heels before daylight 
came. But Dame Fate played him a nasty trick; the 
wind fell, and left him becalmed. And when dawn 
broke he saw that the Capitana, becalmed also, lay 
within sight, waiting for the wind to freshen. 

Evening came, and with it a breeze; and instantly 
Pierre hoisted all sail and stood away, with the Capitana 
in hot pursuit. Then Pierre found he had made a 
mistake; the ship was unable to bear the burden of so 
much sail as he had hoisted, and the fickle wind, 
bursting upon him, brought his mainsail down with 
a rush. 

That did it ! The Capitana sped through the water 
towards the Vice-Admiral, and, coming within range, 
sent a few shots hurtling at her, expecting to see her 
haul down the flag. Instead of which Pierre, resolved 
to fight in the hope of coming out best, opened out with 
his eight guns, and pounded away for all he was worth. 
He took the precaution first of clapping his prisoners 
in the hold and nailing down the hatches. And then, 
with but twenty-two men fit to fight — the rest were either 
killed or wounded — he prepared to give battle. For 
hours they fought, bravely and well; but all in vain. 
The man-o’-war was too much for them, and at last 
Pierre signified his willingness to surrender — on condi- 
tions. These were that they shouldn’t be made slaves, 
nor be made to work on the plantations. The Spaniards 


Some Early Buccaneers 53 

agreed; and within a short time Fran9ois and his men 
were on board the Spanish vessel — prisoners. 

They were taken to Carthagena, where the Spaniards 
broke their word, and made the prisoners slaves for three 
years, after which they were sent to Spain. 

Bartholomew Portugues, another of the early 
buccaneers, sailing off Cuba in a small vessel of three 
guns and thirty men, fell to chasing a big Spaniard of 
twenty big guns and seventy men. The Spaniards 
showed fight, and beat Bartholomew off with losses he 
could ill afford. But, determined to succeed or die, the 
buccaneer brought his vessel back again, and, getting 
alongside, led his crew aboard the Spanish ship. All 
fighting like demons, in the end they captured it, and 
found themselves in possession of a vessel worth having, 
with a treasure on board of 120,000 lbs. of cocoa and 
75,000 crowns. 

Joyful over their good fortune, the buccaneers 
bethought themselves of returning to Jamaica, whence 
they had set out; but, as they were now but twenty all 
told, they did not know how to keep their prisoners. 
They solved that problem by bundling them into a 
small boat and turning them adrift, after which they 
hoisted sail and set off to Cuba to repair, as the wind 
was not favourable for Jamaica. 

All would have gone well had they not fallen in 
with three large ships bound for Havannah, which, 
becoming suspicious, gave chase, and, as they were 
much faster vessels than the new-found prize of the 
buccaneers, they quickly overhauled it, battered at it 
with their guns, and before long had made the captors 
captives, with whom they set sail for Campechy. 

Portugues had a reputation that was not warranted 
to make him loved in Campechy, and when he arrived 
there men lifted up their voices and cried : 


54 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

“ Behold, this is Bartholomew Portugues, the biggest 
scoundrel in the world, who has done more harm to 
Spanish trade than all the other pirates put together.” 
And in due course the governor, in the name of the 
King of Spain, sent soldiers, who took the buccaneer 
to another ship, where he was clapped into irons to 
await the morning — and the gallows, which were 
promptly erected. Bartholomew, made aware of the 
preparations being made in his honour, considered it 
necessary to do something on his own account for his 
safety. So in the night he freed himself from his 
shackles, and, being ingenious and a non-swimmer, 
fashioned strange water-wings, in the shape of a couple 
of leathern jars he found in his cabin. Then, having 
waited till silence on the ship told him that everyone 
was asleep — excepting, he surmised, the sentry at his 
door — he resolved to make a bid for freedom. The 
sentry he stabbed with a knife he had concealed, and 
then slipped over the ship’s side, clambered down the 
mainchains into the sea, and, supported by his jars, 
made his way to shore. 

Into the woods he darted, and for three days hid 
there, on a diet of wild herbs, listening to the sounds 
of baying bloodhounds and angry citizens seeking him 
high and low. Fortunately for the buccaneer, his place 
of concealment was in a hollow tree partly covered by 
water, which put the bloodhounds off the scent. 

In due course the searchers became convinced that 
the pirate had eluded them, and gave up the search, 
and Bartholomew decided it was safe to venture forth. 
He wanted to get to Gulfo Triste, i6o miles away, and 
thither he bent his steps. It was a long way and a weary 
way, and a hungry and thirsty way, too, for he had no 
provisions and little water. He came to rivers that 
he must cross, and he had no boats. He found a board 


Some Early Buccaneers 55 

with a few old nails in it, and out of these he fashioned 
crude knives, with which he laboriously cut down 
branches of trees, and made a raft by which to cross 
the rivers. Sometimes the rivers were fordable, but 
were filled with alligators. At these he flung stones to 
scare them away, and then sallied forth across the 
stream. Once a mangrove swamp lay between him and 
the place where he would fain go. There was no road ; 
only the swamp, that would swallow him up if he put 
foot upon it. He solved the problem of progress by 
swinging from bough to bough of the mangrove, travel- 
ling for miles in that way. Truly, Bartholomew was 
a hardy traveller ! 

Thus for a whole fortnight the buccaneer kept on 
his lonely way, and at last reached Gulfo Triste, where 
he found what he had hoped would be there — a 
buccaneer ship, careening. 

The pirates were friends of his, and he poured into 
their attentive ears the story of his adventures and 
misadventures. They listened even more attentively 
when he told them that, if they would help him, he 
would put in their way a ship that would enable them 
to brave any vessel that the Spanish Dons might send 
out against them; besides which it contained goodly 
treasures. 

“Give me a boat and thirty men,’* he said, “and 
I will go back to Campechy and bring back the ship 
that took me prisoner.” 

His friends gave the boat and the men, and 
Bartholomew set out, hugging the coast, and eight days 
later came to Campechy. Then, under the cover of 
darkness, he put his boat alongside the great vessel, 
scrambled up her side, and prepared to rush. The 
sentry challenged him. Bartholomew, in Spanish, 
murmured soothingly that they were part of the crew 


56 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

returning, after an evening ashore, with smuggled 
goods, and the sentry kept quiet. He was quieter still 
soon, for a knife-thrust laid him low. 

Then, with a rush, the buccaneers fell upon the 
watch, overpowered them, cut the cable and set the 
vessel adrift; after which they ran below. The sleep- 
ing crew awoke in a great fright, and, with pistols at 
their heads, were compelled to surrender. 

The ship was won ! 

Bartholomew, however, seemed dogged by hard 
luck, for while he was making his way past the Isle 
of Pines, bound for Jamaica, a great storm burst upon 
him, and drove his prize upon the rocks, where she 
held fast until she was broken to pieces. 

The ship was lost I 

The buccaneers, however, succeeded in escaping to 
Jamaica in a canoe, from where, according to Esqueme- 
ling, the chronicler of the dark deeds of the bold pirates, 
“it was not long before Bartholomew Portugues went 
on new adventures, but was never fortunate afterwards.” 


MORGAN: BUCCANEER AND GOVERNOR 


Tales of the Remarkable Exploits of the Greatest 
Buccaneer 

B efore telling the story of the buccaneer who 
became Governor of Jamaica, we must mention 
the change which had taken place in the methods of 
the buccaneers. From being mere rovers of the sea, bent 
on taking toll of shipping, they had developed into a 
brotherhood which made bold attempts on cities. The 
Spaniards, weary of their depredations and finding that 
they could not cope with them, had reduced the amount 
of shipping, so that the buccaneers had to turn to more 
profitable fields of enterprise. Hence, says Esqueme- 
ling, “the pirates finding not so many ships at sea as 
before, began to gather into greater companies, and 
land upon the Spanish dominions, ruining whole cities, 
towns and villages; and withal pillaging, burning, and 
carrying away as much as they could find possible.” 

And now to Captain Henry Morgan, the most 
famous of the buccaneers. He was a Welshman, who, 
after various little “affairs,” found himself in command 
of a pirate vessel, with which he was successful. Later, 
he allied himself with Mansvelt, a notorious buccaneer, 
and after the death of that worthy, Morgan was ap- 
pointed to the command of the Brethren of the Coast. 

At the head of his band of rogues, he captured the 
towns of Port au Prince, Cuba, and Porto Bello, Panama 
— both after stiff fights — ^and from the latter he ex- 


58 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

tracted a heavy ransom, was cheeky to the governor 
of Panama, after he had waylaid and beaten an expedi- 
tion sent out to wipe him off the Spanish main, and 
promised the governor that he would come later and 
sack his city for him ! 

Then he turned his attention to Maracaibo. 

First of all, he held a review of his force; it con- 
sisted of eight ships and five hundred men, quite a 
formidable little army. With these he sailed, and in 
due course arrived off Maracaibo. The buccaneers held 
off till night came, sailing in under cover of the 
darkness until they arrived near the bar. The Spaniards, 
sighting the strange vessels, were taking no risks, and 
opened fire immediately, pounding away at the pirates 
as they put out their boats and manned them, ready 
to sweep in and land. Of course, Morgan’s ships gave 
the Spaniards as much as they received, and during 
the day a fine little fight was kept up. Then night came 
again ; and Morgan, meaning to take advantage of it, 
swooped in, to find that the Spaniards in the fort had 
bolted precipitately when night fell. 

They had taken the precaution, however, of setting a 
fuse train to a barrel of gunpowder, sufficient to hurl 
the fort and the buccaneers into the Great Unknown. 
Fortunately, Morgan’s men, scouring about for such a 
likely thing, hit upon it in about a quarter of an hour, 
and soon destroyed the fuse. 

That done, the fort was ransacked and demolished. 
Next day, free from hindrance of the fort, the eight 
pirate ships passed into the harbour, and went on 
to Maracaibo. The water, however, being too shallow 
to allow of the ships passing up, the buccaneers took 
to small boats and canoes, and in this way made their 
way to the town. Landing, they immediately rushed 
Fort De la Barra, only to find that it was deserted; 


Morgan ; Buccaneer and Governor 59 

the Spaniards here had fled like their comrades farther 
down, as also had the people in the town, with the 
exception of a few old folk. 

Truly, Morgan was having an easy time. 

Searching the town to make sure that there were no 
soldiers hidden in the houses to open fire upon them 
as they passed through the streets, and finding none, 
the buccaneers dispersed about the city, some taking up 
their abode in the church, for nothing was held sacred 
to these terrible scourgers of the sea and sackers of 
cities. 

Although Morgan captured a number of fugitives 
and a good deal of booty, he realised that there was 
nothing much to be gained from Maracaibo, and de- 
cided to assault Gibraltar. First he sent a batch of 
prisoners to the city, to warn the inhabitants that they 
must surrender, or else they would receive no quarter; 
and almost immediately followed them with his ships. 
Gibraltar, however, was determined not to surrender at 
the behest of a scoundrelly buccaneer, and Morgan was 
met by a terrific cannonading. 

Nothing daunted, the buccaneers accepted their wel- 
come philosophically, counting it but the bitters before 
the sweets. Early next morning, they landed and 
marched on the town, taking the safe route through the 
woods, the Spaniards in the fort little expecting them 
to come by that way. However, the dons, aware of the 
reputation of Morgan, had followed the example of their 
compatriots at Maracaibo and had fled, leaving only 
one old man to receive the buccaneers. They had taken 
all the munitions of war, all the treasure, and as much 
of their goods as they could cope with, and they had 
spiked all the guns. 

There were a number of murderous and cruel inci- 
dents connected with the prisoners they succeeded in 


6o The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

taking later on. From one of these unfortunate men 
they learned of a certain river where there was a richly 
laden ship and four boats filled with treasure ; he also 
told them that he knew where the governor of Gibraltar 
was hidden 

This was good news. Morgan went off with a large 
force to capture the governor, and sent another body of 
men to take the ship and the boats. Morgan was un- 
successful in capturing the governor, who had heard of 
his coming and had taken up a strong position on a 
mountain; so that the buccaneer had to forgo the 
pleasure of capturing him, and, moreover, had to make 
a perilous retreat, owing to the fact that the rains had 
come and the ground was swampy — sometimes, indeed, 
the men had to wade waist deep. Many female prisoners 
and children died of exposure; some of the buccaneers 
died also, and all their powder was wet and useless, 
so that, if the Spaniards had had the gumption of mice, 
they would have fallen upon Morgan and utterly routed 
him. But they hadn’t; and they didn’t. 

Morgan, therefore, arrived safely back at Gibraltar, 
where two days later his other men turned up, bringing 
the four boats and some prisoners, but little treasure. 
The Spaniards had taken it out of the ship and the 
boats. 

Having held Gibraltar for five weeks, and having 
committed all sorts of cruelties to extract treasure from 
the prisoners taken, Morgan decided that it was time to 
be moving. He first of all sent prisoners into the woods 
to collect a ransom for the city, failing which the place 
would be burnt out. The searchers came back minus 
ransom ; they could not find anyone who would give 
them money, they said. Morgan was furious; but the 
inhabitants begged him to allow them time, offering 
to give themselves up as hostages. Morgan, who was 


Morgan : Buccaneer and Governor 6i 

anxious to get back to Maracaibo before the Spaniards 
had had time to refortify it, agreed to this, and event- 
ually sailed away, taking a goodly treasure with him and 
all the slaves he had captured. 

Reaching Maracaibo, he found that the Spaniards 
had not yet come back, but learned from an old man 
that three Spanish men-o’-war were lying at the en- 
trance to the river, waiting for him, and that the fort 
had been repaired. Here was a pretty pass ! Safety 
lay in getting out, and three battleships were hovering 
about ! 

Morgan, however, like the bold adventurer he was, 
refused to regard himself as caught. He sent a mes- 
senger to the admiral of the Spanish ships, Don Alonzo 
del Campo d’Espinosa, with an ultimatum ! 

^‘Ransom of 20,000 pieces of eight for Maracaibo, 
or I’ll burn the city ! ” was the trend of that ultimatum ; 
as though Morgan were master of the situation. 

The messenger came back, bringing a letter from 
d’ Espinosa, informing Morgan that, seeing his com- 
mission was to secure the buccaneers, and as he had 
a good backing of ships, besides the repaired fort, he 
would see Morgan to the deuce before he took any 
notice of the latter’s ultimatum. He made one conces- 
sion, however; that if Morgan would refund all he had 
taken, and quit the Spanish Main for England, he 
would allow him to pass freely. Otherwise, the 
Spaniards would give fight, and put every buccaneer 
to the sword. 

Morgan read the letter, said a few strong things 
about Spaniards in general and d’Espinosa in par- 
ticular, and then called a council of his men in the 
market-place of Maracaibo, and was gratified to know 
that they would all stand by him in a vigorous offensive 
against the Spaniards. One of them propounded a 


62 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

scheme for destroying the Spanish vessels. Fireships ! 
That was the suggestion. 

Notwithstanding their determination to fight, the 
buccaneers had another try at corrupting d’Espinosa. 
They sent saying that they would compromise by doing 
no damage to the town, or exact ransom from it; 
and that they would release half the slaves taken, all 
other prisoners, and forgo any ransom from Gibraltar, 
if the Spaniards would allow them to pass through un- 
molested. D’Espinosa, of course, refused the terms, 
and gave the buccaneers two days to fall into line with 
his own suggestion. He would have done better if he 
had attacked them out of hand, for Morgan immediately 
began to put himself in fighting form. He secured his 
prisoners, had all arms prepared, and then fixed up a 
fireship. She was drenched with tar and brimstone, logs 
of wood were placed upright on her decks, surmounted 
by hats, to resemble men ; dummy cannons were fixed 
in her portholes and on her decks. 

All being ready, they went down the river to seek 
the Spaniards, the fireship leading the way. At night 
they came within sight of the enemy, dropped anchor, 
determined to fight all night if the Spaniards attacked. 
But morning came, and the foe had not opened the 
battle, so Morgan opened it instead. He sent the 
fireship ahead; she grappled the admiral’s ship, and 
almost simultaneously burst into flame. Instantly there 
was confusion on the Spanish ship, which tried to cut 
herself free. But in vain ; the flames caught her rigging 
and canvas, even her timber, so that within a very 
short time the stern of the ship was ablaze, the forepart 
sank, and the great ship perished. Meanwhile, the other 
Spaniards were horror-stricken ; one ship ran for the 
shelter of the fort — anywhere to get away from such a 
fate; the Spaniards sank her themselves rather than 


Morgan : Buccaneer and Governor 63 

that she should fall to the foe. The third ship was 
attacked by the buccaneers and captured; and Morgan 
knew that his bold plan had been successful. 

The buccaneers, gladdened at their victory, landed, 
with the intention of assaulting the fort; but, finding 
it well armed and manned, and they themselves having 
only small pieces with them, thought discretion the 
better part of valour for the time, though they had a 
little fight with the Spaniards, just for fun, which cost 
them thirty men dead and as many wounded. The 
Dons, fearing another attack both by land and sea, 
entrenched themselves during the night; but Morgan 
was not intending to assault them again, but rather to 
find a way out, for the fort still stood between him and 
escape. First of all he left one ship near the scene of 
the fight, to watch the vessels which had been burnt, 
and which he heard contained a large treasure. Then 
he returned with the prize to Maracaibo, where he re- 
fitted her, and then went back to his other ships near 
the fort. 

Master of the situation, he now sent to the governor 
demanding the ransom — now 30,000 pieces of eight and 
500 cows; otherwise, the city should be burnt in eight 
days. In two days the cows were forthcoming, and 
20,000 pieces of eight, the ransom finally agreed upon. 
Meanwhile, the governor was working hard at getting 
the fort in a thorough state of repair, so that he might 
dispute the passage of the pirates as they tried to force 
their way through. Having salted all the meat sup- 
plied him, Morgan asked the governor to allow him 
free passage. It was refused. The buccaneer replied 
by threatening to hang his prisoners in the rigging, so 
that they should be shot by the fort guns as the vessels 
swung past. The governor refused to budge, even when 
the prisoners made a frantic appeal to him. 


64 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

“All right,” was Morgan’s answer. “If he will not 
let me pass, then I’ll find a way without him.” 

The vessel which he had left near the burnt ship had 
been successful in getting many pieces of eight out of 
her, and a large quantity of plate and molten gold. 

As the governor refused him safe passage, Morgan, 
having divided the booty of the expedition, amounting 
to 250,000 pieces of eight and a large quantity of 
merchandise, turned his attention to finding the means 
whereby to escape. Fertile in invention, cool in execu- 
tion, he soon found a way. It was a bold piece of 
strategy that he hit upon. On the day he had decided 
to leave despite the governor, he sent boats, fully 
manned, to the shore, but instead of landing, the men, 
under shelter of the trees overhanging the river, simply 
lay down in the boats, which were pulled back to the 
ships, only to be sent off again to follow the same pro- 
cedure. The Spaniards in the fort, seeing such large 
numbers of men apparently coming ashore, prepared 
themselves for a fierce night attack. They therefore 
mounted all their big guns on the landward side, which 
was just what Morgan had hoped they would do ! 

Night came; the buccaneers weighed anchor, and 
with lights out and no sails set, but trusting to the 
tide, they drifted down river till they were abreast of 
the castle, when they spread their sails with all haste 
and made for the open sea. Instantly the Spaniards 
perceived how they had been hoodwinked, and in frantic 
haste moved their guns back to their original positions, 
and began firing at the buccaneers, who, however, 
favoured by a good breeze, were able to swing by 
without receiving much damage. 

Safely past the fort, Morgan hove to, and in the 
morning sent some of his prisoners to the governor, 
who dispatched boats so that the others might be sent 


Morgan : Buccaneer and Governor 65 

ashore, Morgan, however, detaining the hostages from 
Gibraltar, as the city had not yet paid its ransom. Then 
the buccaneers, giving the Spaniards a parting salvo of 
seven great guns, dipped their flags in derision and 
went away, to run into a great storm, which threatened 
to do what the Spaniards had not been able to do — de- 
stroy them. However, they rode it out, and eventually 
reached Jamaica, highly pleased with themselves. 

As was the custom with the buccaneers, Morgan’s 
men soon dissipated the fortune they had made in their 
raid on Maracaibo and Gibraltar, and the chief was 
besieged by men who wanted him to undertake an- 
other expedition. Nothing loath, Morgan called a council 
of buccaneers at Port Couillon, on the south of 
Hispaniola, on October 24, 1670. Here he propounded 
a mighty big scheme, and one that had to be carefully 
worked out. First, provisions were necessary, and the 
buccaneers sent an expedition to the mainland to scour 
for maize, while another went hunting for animals ; and 
when all these were obtained they met again at Port 
Couillon, where the final arrangements were made. 
Everything being ready, they set sail for Cape Tiburon, 
where they were joined by a number of other ships, 
which brought the fleet up to thirty-seven vessels and 
two thousand men, all well armed, and each ship with 
large guns aboard. Morgan, finding himself the leader 
of such a formidable expedition, organised it properly, 
forming it into two squadrons, appointing a vice- 
admiral and other officers for the second squadron, he 
himself leading the first. 

Having fixed these little matters up, the buccaneers 
discussed their expedition. Where should they go? 
The votes fell for Panama, which was counted the richest 
city to plunder. As they were npt familiar with the 
overland route, they decided to seize guides from the 

F 


66 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

island of St. Catherine, and in due course the armada 
appeared off the fort of that place. They sent mes- 
sengers demanding its surrender, and the governor 
gave in, whereupon the buccaneers busied themselves in 
laying in all the stores they wanted; and that being 
done, enlisted three pretty rogues to act as guides to 
them in their great venture. 

Then Morgan sent off a fairly large party to assault 
the castle of Chagre, as a sort of preliminary canter; 
and when this had been successfully done, he himself 
went to the castle, rebuilt it, and so secured his line of 
retreat — if Fate should make it necessary for him to 
flee before the Spaniards at Panama. Five hundred of 
his ruffians were left as a garrison, and 150 guarded the 
ships, 1,200 going with Morgan when he set out for 
Panama, which he did as soon as everything was ready. 

The buccaneer received information that the 
Spaniards were aware of his projected expedition, and 
had prepared against it, placing ambuscades on the line 
of route. But, instead of scaring Morgan, it really only 
made him alter his plans to the extent that, instead of 
carrying as many stores as he would have done, he 
relied upon sending the Spaniards scurrying from their 
ambushes, and taking their stores for himself. 

On January 18, 1671, therefore, the buccaneers left 
Chagre in boisterous spirits, with songs on their lips, 
and with the good wishes of their comrades ringing in 
their ears. Drums were beaten, flags waved, blunder- 
busses were fired, as the intrepid 1,200 embarked in 
boats and canoes. 

Their troubles began at once. The day was hot, 
the boats none too commodious to contain all the men, 
and the result was that the buccaneers were sun-scorched 
and cramped as they made their way up the river against 
the stream, with the water lapping over the gunwales, 


Morgan : Buccaneer and Governor 67 

SO crowded were the craft. Six Spanish leagues only 
were covered that first day, and when evening fell the 
buccaneers scrambled ashore to seek for food. They 
found little or none. Morgan had not bargained for 
the Spaniards taking such effective measures to render 
his expedition a failure; but the Dons had given in- 
structions all along the route that every particle of food 
was to be removed, animals driven away, and what 
could not be cleared off to be destroyed. Esquemeling 
says that “this day, being the first of all their journey, 
there was amongst them such scarcity of victuals that 
the greatest part of them were forced to pass with only 
a pipe of tobacco, without any other refreshment.” The 
following day the journey was resumed, but the same 
troubles beset them, and when they arrived at Cruz de 
Juan Gallego, in the evening, they had to abandon their 
boats and canoes, because the river was shallow and 
filled with fallen trees. 

Morgan’s guides told him that two leagues farther 
on the country was good for travelling on foot, and the 
buccaneer, leaving 160 men to guard the boats, set out 
next morning to cut a way through the thick jungle. 
The travelling was so hard that the men could not cope 
with it, and, fearing lest, if they got through, they would 
be worse than useless to withstand an attack, Morgan 
went back to the river, determined to make a portage. 
He sent the strongest of his men by land, and em- 
barked the remainder on the canoes, which forced a way 
up river and met the other party — hungry, weary, dis- 
appointed at not having come across either Indians or 
Spaniards. They wanted food so badly, and could find 
none. 

From this point Morgan divided his army into two 
parties, one going by land, the other by river, with a 
guide scouting before them on the look-out for ambus- 


68 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

cades. Incidentally, the Spaniards also had their spies, 
who were so efficient that they could warn the Spaniards 
six hours before the coming of the buccaneers. It was 
in this way that Morgan came to an ambuscade too late 
to meet the Spaniards, 500 of whom, he judged, had 
been there. Not a scrap of food was left behind; the 
only things about were a few leathern bags, upon which 
the buccaneers fell ravishingly, and quarrelled amongst 
themselves as to the biggest shares I After they had 
feasted themselves upon the tough rations, they moved 
forward again, to come to another place where an 
ambuscade had been made, only to find it as deserted 
and as barren as the other. They searched here, there, 
and everywhere for food, finding none. Not a horse, 
not a cow was to be seen ; they could not find even rats, 
and on the fifth day they were so famished that it seemed 
as though the expedition would be a failure. Then 
they lighted upon a grotto, and in it found two sacks of 
meal, wheat, etc., and a couple of jars of wine and some 
fruits. Such heaven-sent gifts ! Morgan caused them 
to be distributed amongst the weakest of his men, whom 
he put in the canoes, making the others go by land. 

Next day they came to a plantation with a barn in it 
filled with maize. They broke that barn open, and fell 
to eating the corn raw, and then distributed the rest. 
Unfortunately for them, they presently saw what they 
thought was an ambuscade of Indians. They felt that 
now they would be sure to find food, and, throwing their 
maize away, rushed at the ambuscade; but the Indians 
slipped away, carrying everything with them, and 
standing on the other side of the river, taunted them, 
and, shooting arrows, succeeded in killing several of the 
buccaneers. 

The way now lay across the river, and it was neces- 
sary to wait until next day to cross. That night the 


Morgan : Buccaneer and Governor 69 

men began to grumble, cursing Morgan for a fool, and 
vowing that they would go back. However, better 
counsels prevailed, and in the morning, having seen to 
their arms, they crossed the river, and travelled on to 
the village of Cruz. Smoke issuing from the houses 
cheered them up, for they said, “Where there’s smoke, 
there’s food I ” 

Again they were disappointed, for the Spaniards had 
fled with eveything eatable and of value, setting fire to 
the houses ere they left. A few cats and dogs were 
found; they made a feast for the buccaneers that day. 
Then some nosing scoundrel discovered a few jars of 
wine and a sack of bread. They fell upon those goodies 
with a will; and then almost died after drinking the 
wine, which was too strong for their weakened stomachs. 
This little matter delayed them till next morning, for 
the men were too ill to move, and it was a case of 
everyone walking now, because the river was too shallow 
to take them farther. Morgan, therefore, next morning 
sent his canoes back, lest they should be captured, and 
with the remainder of his men marched forward, meeting 
that day with the first opposition. A flight of some 
four thousand arrows darkened the air, and caused a 
panic amongst the buccaneers, who could not see 
whence they had come. Presently, however, they espied 
a band of Indians in a position which, if defended 
stanchly, would have prevented the buccaneers pass- 
ing. But, contenting themselves with shooting a few 
more arrows, the Indians took to their heels. Then, 
a little later, the raiders met another company, and had 
a stiff little fight with them. Yet again, in a wood, 
Indians appeared, backed by a number of Spaniards. 
These, however, soon fled, and the pirates held on their 
way, experiencing in the evening and during the night 
a terrific rainstorm, which caused them much hardship, 


70 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

as the majority had to sleep out in the downpour, a 
few being told off to occupy some small huts in which 
the arms and powder were stored. 

The ninth day came, and the buccaneers ascended 
a hill, from the summit of which they caught the gleam 
of the great South Sea. And, better still, fertile plains 
rolled beneath them, with herds of cattle quietly 
browsing. 

Down the hill-side raced the buccaneers, hurling 
themselves amongst the cattle, which they killed and 
cut up for eating, many not waiting to cook the meat. 

Having thus satisfied their animal cravings, they 
moved forward, sending out a band of fifty to scout, 
in the hope of being able to capture some prisoners, from 
whom they might learn the disposition and strength of 
the Spaniards. Morgan was growing anxious at the 
elusiveness of the Dons, fearing, no doubt, that they 
were simply leading him on into a well prepared trap. 
But he never swerved from his intention ; he had come 
to take Panama and sack it, and he would do so despite 
all the Spaniards in the New World. Towards even- 
ing a couple of hundred Dons appeared and shouted at 
the buccaneers, who, however, could not catch what they 
said; and soon after the Spaniards had gone away the 
picturesque horde of pirates came in sight of Panama. 
Mighty cheers rent the air, trumpets blared, ragged caps 
were flung up; the men who had found the utmost 
difficulty in dragging themselves along the tortuous 
paths now leaped for very joy. They already had by 
anticipation the wealth of Panama in their hands ! 

They pitched their camp that night with Panama 
before them, barely contenting themselves with the idea 
of having to wait until the morning before the work really 
began. They need not have worried ; the Spaniards saw 
to it that they had little rest. Fifty horsemen trooped 


Morgan : Buccaneer and Governor 71 

out of the city, headed by a trumpeter, who blared away 
at them, while the Dons cried in derision : “Come on, ye 
dogs I We shall meet ye I *’ and then rode back, leav- 
ing an outpost to keep an eye upon the buccaneers. 
Almost immediately afterwards the great guns of 
Panama began to speak their taunts, and the pirates 
found themselves bombarded by heavy fire, which, 
however, did little damage. 

Morning came, and the raiders prepared for the 
assault of the city. There was little need for silence as 
they moved forward, and the buccaneers made a terrible 
row, what with shouting, singing, and trumpeting. 
They were an army by no means to be despised; about 
a thousand strong, with loot as their aim, and what they 
lacked in the way of uniform — for they were as raga- 
muffin an army as ever took the field — they made up 
in courage and equipment. On they went, and then 
suddenly came to a standstill at the word of command 
from their chief. One of the guides had remembered 
that there was a better way to enter the city than risking 
an encounter by going in full view of the Spaniards. 
It was a difficult road, passing through a thick wood, 
but Morgan decided to take it. So the army turned 
off, and the Spaniards, seeing them do so, were filled 
with dismay, for they had not dreamt the foe would take 
that road, and had fixed all their batteries to oppose 
them on the other. 

It ended by the buccaneers coming on the town at 
a side totally unprepared for attack, and the Spaniards 
had hastily to leave their barricades and batteries. From 
the summit of a hill the pirates looked down upon 
Panama — and what seemed to them a whole host of 
Spaniards. The governor had turned out all his forces, 
consisting of two squadrons of cavalry, four regiments 
of foot, and a fair amount of artillery. The sight of so 


72 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

many foes for a while struck fear into the hearts of the 
ragged horde, who had known but little fear till then. 
Some of them spoke of going back. But, taking counsel 
amongst themselves, they decided that, after all, it was 
desirable to do what they had come out for, and to 
go into the fight with fierce courage, giving and taking 
no quarter. 

Morgan divided his army into three battalions, send- 
ing in advance a company of 200 real buccaneers — that 
is, the hunters of wild cattle. 

And the fight began. 

The Spaniards sent forward their cavalry at the 
gallop, shouting “Viva el Rey”; but the rain had 
soddened the ground, and the horses became unmanage- 
able, especially when the pirates* advance guard dropped 
to their knees and sent in a withering fire of well-aimed 
shots. But the Dons put up a bold defence, foot aiding 
horse, artillery supporting both, till presently Morgan 
manoeuvred so that the infantry were obliged to separate 
from the cavalry. And then the buccaneers knew they 
were on the way to victory. 

The Spaniards, however, had a card up their sleeve. 
When they debouched from the city, they brought with 
them a herd of wild bulls, in charge of a band of Indians. 
It was one part of the army with which they meant to 
oppose the buccaneers. Finding that the battle was 
going all against them, the Dons gave the word, and 
the herd of bulls, maddened by the cries and lashes of 
the Indians, went full pelt across the plain, straight for 
Morgan’s gallant little army. It looked as though 
there were going to be a bull-fight instead of a battle 
between men. Instead of that, the noise of the conflict, 
which still went on between buccaneers and Spaniards, 
so scared the bulls that they turned and ran away. A 
few, however, broke through the English battalion, but 


Morgan ; Buccaneer and Governor 73 

did no more damage than to tear the colours. The result 
was that the buccaneers found themselves with enough 
meat to last them many days. 

The Spaniards, disappointed at the failure of their 
ruse, held on with the courage of despair, fighting for 
two more hours, having the greater part of their cavalry 
killed, the rest fleeing for their lives. The infantry and 
artillery, however, kept up the fight till, with a rush, 
the buccaneers ^wept down upon them ; and then, firing 
only the shots that were in their muskets, away the 
Dons went, flinging their arms aside as they ran. The 
buccaneers, battle-worn, were too weary to follow them, 
and hundreds managed to reach the safety of the woods, 
those few that remained on the field being killed out 
of hand. 

Six hundred Spaniards died that day, while Morgan 
“found both killed and wounded of his own men a 
considerable number.” However, he was victorious, 
and making his men rest before going up to the city, 
examined a few prisoners who were brought in. One 
captain told him that the troops in Panama consisted of 
400 horse, twenty-four companies of infantry of 100 
men each, and 2,000 bulls, while in the city trenches 
had been made and batteries dotted about to enfilade 
the streets up which the buccaneers must go. 

Morgan and his men, however, vowed to go on, 
and after resting marched forward against the city, 
which, when they approached, opened up a terrific fire 
from the batteries, the guns being loaded with pieces of 
iron and musket-balls. The cannonade wrought havoc 
with Morgan’s men, who, however, pressed forward, 
nothing daunted, and after a stern fight lasting three 
hours, they entered the city, rushing up the streets, 
which, guarded by the great guns, swept lanes through 
their ranks. It was a case of fighting from barricade to 


74 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

barricade, taking battery after battery; fighting a way 
up one street, and then down another. For three hours 
the fierce fight went on, and still the buccaneers were 
winning. 

Then came the end. Gathering his forces, the 
governor opposed the pirates gallantly, and a fierce 
hand-to-hand conflict waged, out of which the bucca- 
neers came victorious, and the city fell. Morgan had 
achieved what he had set out to do. Through the 
streets the raiders*" rushed, killing every soul who op- 
posed them, giving no quarter; and when the work of 
blood was done, Morgan called his men together. 

He commended them on their gallant fight, and 
then scared them into sobriety. He knew what kind 
of men he had to deal with, and knew that, if they 
once fell to the lure of wine, they would be at the 
mercy of any small band of Spaniards who might 
return. Morgan lied to his men. 

“All the wine in the city has been poisoned!” he 
cried. “Drink but one cup, and you will die ! ” 

Sadly disappointed — for they loved nothing so much 
as debauchery, except it were a fight — the buccaneers 
promised to keep off the drink. Though some of them 
in their hearts told themselves that he lied, they were too 
scared to try to prove it. So Morgan became leader of 
a sober army of buccaneers! 

Then there began the looting of the city. The in- 
habitants had taken the precaution of removing a great 
deal of their valuables ; but there was still sufficient left 
to provide much spoil for the buccaneers, who ransacked 
every building in Panama. When all had been taken, 
Morgan commanded many of the largest houses to be 
fired. The people who still remained in the city had 
been tortured indescribably to make them reveal the 
secret hiding-places of their wealth, and a veritable 


Morgan : Buccaneer and Governor 75 

reign of terror lasted while the buccaneers remained 
in Panama. 

It was not until February 24, 1671, that Morgan and 
the remains of his army evacuated the city; and when 
they did so they had 175 beasts of burden laden with 
gold, silver, and other precious things. They took 
600 wretched prisoners with them to sell into slavery. 

Truly, they had wrought well from their point of 
view. Morgan made every man allow himself to be 
searched to show that he had nothing concealed about 
him when they arrived at Chagre. Then, having sent 
to the island of St. Catherine to ask the prisoners he 
had left there to ransom the castle, and receiving the 
reply that the buccaneers could do just what they 
pleased with it, Morgan got down to the distribution of 
the spoils. In this matter there was some dispute; the 
buccaneers accused Morgan of having stolen part of the 
treasure. They were utterly discontented with the share 
of 200 pieces of eight each, knowing full well that the 
haul had been large enough to provide more. Morgan 
listened to their complaints, kept a still tongue in his 
head, kept, too, the treasure, and one night, going 
aboard his ship secretly, slipped out to sea, followed 
only by three or four vessels whose men were in the 
plot, and made for Jamaica. 

There the buccaneering days of Captain Morgan 
ended. He changed his spots, became a law-abiding 
citizen, received pardon for his misdeeds, and ended up 
by receiving a knighthood! Before that great day, 
however, he had been Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica. 
Finally he was made Governor, with power to put down 
piracy. And of all the governors of Jamaica Sir Henry 
Morgan was the most severe on buccaneers and pirates I 


UNDER THE JOLLY ROGER 

Thrilling Stories of Pirates 

P IRATES ! 

The word conjures up visions of ferocious men 
with pistol in hand, knife in mouth, clothes stained 
with blood, planks run out of a ship’s side, and un- 
fortunate, blindfolded men being driven to their death ; 
treasure in galore; high jinks ashore till the call for 
action came again. 

A pretty picture — perhaps ; and only too well 
founded on fact. 

When, in 1689, France and England joined hands 
in the determination to sweep the buccaneer from the 
seas, and to effect this closed all used harbours to him, 
the ruffian adopted new methods. As we have seen, 
the buccaneers were something of a community, recog- 
nised up to a point by different nations, and the French 
and English buccaneers waged private war against the 
Spaniard. The assumption of so much power, as shown 
by Morgan, made the nations anxious, and the result 
was that when they decided to put an end to the 
buccaneer, whether he only attacked Spaniards or not, 
that worthy, finding himself a general outcast, declared 
against everybody ; he became a pirate to whom no ship 
was immune. 

Previously the scourges of the sea had been able to 
use frequented harbours to dispose of their prisoners 
and treasure; now they found themselves compelled to 

76 


77 


Under the Jolly Roger 

find new ports, and these were generally desert islands. 
Here they marooned their prisoners, or hid their treasure 
against the time when they could come and dig it up. 

To take Blackbeard first. 

Blackbeard was his nickname, given him because 
of the long whiskers that he wore, tied up with ribbons 
on occasions, if you please I Altogether Captain 
Edward Teach, to give him his right name, was a 
somewhat picturesque ruffian, with a sling over his 
shoulders to carry three brace of pistols, lighted matches 
under his hat, his beribboned beard and his flamboyant 
costume made up of things he had purloined during his 
cruises. He began life as a seaman on a privateer, 
rising to the command of a sloop in 1716. The sloop, 
by the way, was a prize captured by his friend Captain 
Hornygold, with whom in 1717 Teach sailed on a 
voyage down the American mains. After a fairly pros- 
perous cruise the pirates parted company, Teach having 
command of a new prize, a large French Guineaman, 
and Hornygold going to Providence, where he sur- 
rendered to the King’s mercy, probably having had 
enough of the life adventurous and realising that a 
recent proclamation gave him an opportunity to leave 
his profession without sacrificing his life. 

Blackbeard, however, was but just beginning, as it 
were, and he turned his Guineaman into a formidable 
fighting ship, mounting forty guns in her, and giving 
her the new name of the Queen Anne^s Revenge. All 
being ready, he sailed, and almost immediately fell in 
with a large ship called the Great Allen, off the Isle 
of St. Vincent. He soon overcame any resistance made, 
took out of her all that he wanted, marooned the crew, 
set fire to the ship, and sent her drifting out to sea, 
a flaming testimony to the methods he was going to 
adopt in his profession. 


78 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

A day or so afterwards he came up against a different 
kind of ship; she was an English man-o’-war, the 
Scarborough, thirty guns. There was a fine set-to 
for some hours, for Teach was nothing loath to accept 
a really good scrap when the opportunity arose, espe- 
cially when, as in this case, he was stronger than his 
foe. The guns blared out their thunderous music, there 
were some near shaves for boarding; but in the end 
the Scarborough found that she had undertaken too 
big a task, and sheered off. Mighty pleased. Teach 
now got swelled head, and felt himself strong enough 
for anything, and felt stronger still when, sailing for 
the Spanish Main, he joined forces with another pirate, 
Major Bonnet, who, finding a planter’s life too 
monotonous, had taken to the sea as a gentleman 
adventurer. Teach soon found out that Bonnet was 
no sailorman, and likely to be more bother than he 
was worth in command of a ship ; so he put one of his 
comrades named Richards in command of the sloop 
and took Bonnet on his own ship. It was no good 
Bonnet protesting; Teach spoke, and it was! He was 
an autocrat, this merry pirate I 

The two vessels now put in at Turneffe, near the 
Gulf of Honduras, to take in water, and while doing 
this an unfortunate sloop, the Adventure, came along; 
whereupon Richards slipped out after her. All un- 
suspecting, the Adventure held on. Then came con- 
sternation — the pirate had hoisted the Jolly Roger ! 

And the Adventure struck and surrendered, which 
gave Teach another ship for his little Armada. Then 
away to Honduras, where they discovered a large ship, 
the Protestant Ccesar (Captain Wyar) and four sloops. 
Sailing boldly in, the pirates hoisted the black flag, 
banged away at the ships, and called upon them to 
surrender. Immediately Wyar and his crew took to 


Under the Jolly Roger 79 

a boat and raced ashore, leaving the Protestant Ccesar 
at the mercy of the pirates, who took possession, and 
after rifling her, burnt her, as they did one of the sloops. 
The other three they let go. 

Leaving Honduras, the pirates sailed about the 
neighbouring seas, taking prizes at their will and 
reaping a rich harvest. Finally, they came to anchor 
off the bar at Charlestown, Carolina, where they con- 
tinued their depredations, capturing many ships, one 
of them a brigantine full of negro slaves. Blackbeard’s 
sojourn off Charlestown was nothing more or less than 
a blockade, and a very effective one; no ship dared 
try to enter or leave the port, and the whole trade of 
the town was at a standstill, while day by day Teach 
was adding to the number of his prizes. 

Finding that he stood in need of a medicine-chest. 
Teach decided that the best way to get it was to apply 
to the Governor of Charlestown. Confident that he held 
the trump cards in the game, the pirate sent Richards 
and two or three other men into Charlestown, sending 
with them one named Marks, whom they had taken 
prisoner on one of the ships. 

The pirates landed, swaggered into the town, 
bearded the authorities brazenly, and in none too 
courteous manner told them that they wanted medicines, 
and that the council of Carolina must provide them. 
If they were not forthcoming, and if the envoys were 
not allowed to return unmolested, then Teach threat- 
ened that he would burn every one of the large number 
of ships he had captured, would kill every man found 
on them, and send their heads to the governor. 

Mr. Marks interviewed the council, and Richards 
and his companions sauntered about the town flaunting 
the people, who dared not lay a finger upon them ! The 
council, in a quandary, argued about the matter 


8o The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

amongst themselves; but as the lives of so many people 
were at stake (by the way, one of their own number, 
Mr. Samuel Wragg, was a prisoner to Teach), they 
soon came to the conclusion that, however disgraceful 
it might be, there was nothing to be done but meet 
the pirates’ demands. So when the sloop went back it 
carried a medicine-chest worth nearly four hundred 
pounds ! 

Teach, true to his word, set the prisoners free, rifled 
the ships of a small fortune, and then sailed away to 
North Carolina. Here Blackbeard put into execution 
a little plot. He had succeeded in gathering a fine 
harvest of riches, and felt that it was a shame to have 
to share it with so many folk. He therefore decided 
to get rid of some of them. Running his own vessel 
ashore, while Israel Hands (in the plot with him) ran 
one of the sloops ashore as well, the precious pair rowed 
out to the third sloop with forty men, took possession 
of her, and marooned seventeen of her crew on a small 
deserted island well away from the coast. Fortunately 
for them. Major Bonnet, at this time in command of 
another sloop, came up two days later and took them 
off ; otherwise they would have perished. 

Having got rid of some of the crew. Teach now 
landed and, accompanied by twenty of his men, called 
on the governor of North Carolina, not with the in- 
tention of plundering him, but for the purpose of 
surrendering under the clement proclamation. Governor 
Charles Eden gave him his pardon, and the pirate, now 
fairly wealthy, soon became friends with him ; so much 
so that when Blackbeard cast covetous eyes upon one 
of the ships he had captured some time before, the 
governor called the Court of the Vice-Admiralty, which 
condemned the vessel as a prize taken from the 
Spaniards by Captain Teach. This was straining 


Under the Jolly Roger 8i 

things rather, seeing that Teach had never held a 
commission in the King’s navy ! No doubt Governor 
Eden made something out of the deal. 

Teach’s idea in getting the ship was that he felt 
the time ripe for resuming the old life; and he felt 
that, with a friend at court, he would have a much 
easier time of it. So in June, 1718, after having 
married a young girl of sixteen (his fourteenth wife, 
a dozen still being alive !), Blackbeard put to sea, 
shaping his course for the Bermudas. He had a 
rollicking time for several months, taking rich prizes, 
terrorising the captains who traded thereabouts, and 
going back to North Carolina occasionally to square 
things up with the governor, who was now so far in 
the ditch that Teach felt strong enough to be saucy 
to him — just to teach him his place ! 

No matter what protests were entered at North 
Carolina, no matter how many angry captains appealed 
to the governor for redress and protection, nothing 
was done; and Teach held sway. Things assumed 
such a pass that a deputation of captains was sent to 
the Governor of Virginia, to request that steps should 
be taken against Teach. In the James River were 
two men-o’-war, the Lima and the Pearl, and two 
sloops were manned by sailors from the warships 
under command of Lieutenant Maynard, of the Pearl. 
Then, after a proclamation offering rewards for the 
apprehension, dead or alive, of the pirates, the sloops 
set out for where the pirates were at anchor in the 
Okercok inlet, in the James River. Maynard had 
taken the precaution to stop all vessels from going 
up the river, lest news of his coming should be 
given the pirates. Governor Eden, aware of the 
expedition, sent four pirates from Bath Town to warn 
Teach what was afoot. The pirate, however, had had 

G 


82 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

several other warnings, which he refused to believe, 
and he took the news the governor sent him with a 
grain of salt. The result was that Maynard was able 
to get within sight of the pirate vessels without 
hindrance. And then Teach believed ! 

Roaring out orders to the twenty-five men on board, 
he quickly cleared for action, determined to show figtit. 
Then, when all was ready, he calmly sat down to 
supper and a carousal, knowing that the shoals were 
too dangerous for Maynard to attempt cutting him out 
till daylight came. 

Hardly waiting for the sun to rise, Maynard next 
morning sent a boat ahead to take soundings in the 
intricate channel, and drew near to the pirate ship. 
Within gunshot, he was subjected to a heavy fire by 
Teach, who, when the sloops hoisted the King’s colours 
and raced at him with sail and oar, cut cable and tried 
to make a running fight of it. He brought all his big 
guns to bear upon the sloops, but these pushed on 
through the hail of shot, and, having no guns mounted, 
kept up a rain of small-arm fire. They hung on like 
leeches, dodged the pirate, and made him dodge to such 
an extent that Teach was at his wit’s end what to do, 
and at last ran ashore. Maynard’s sloop was of deeper 
draught than the pirate, and could not get near until 
the ballast was flung overboard and the water-casks 
staved in. Then, lightened considerably, she was 
able to get close enough to Teach to make him 
uncomfortable. 

“Who are you?” yelled Blackbeard. “Where are 
you from ? ” 

“We’re no pirates,” retorted Maynard, “as you can 
see by our colours.” 

“Send a boat, then, so that I can see who you are,” 
said Teach. 


Under the Jolly Roger 83 

“Sorry,” answered Maynard, “but I can’t spare 
a boat. I’ll come aboard with the sloop, however, as 
soon as I can I ” 

“Seize my soul,” cried Teach, quaffing wine, “if I 
give you quarter, or take any from you 1 ” 

A sentiment with which Maynard told him he 
heartily agreed. 

The pirate ship was now afloat again, and the battle 
started once more. As the sloops were no more than 
a foot high in the waist the crews were exposed to fire 
as they tugged at the oars; and Teach took advantage 
of this. He discharged a whole broadside of small shot, 
which killed twenty men on Maynard’s ship and nine 
on the other, which was disabled, and fell astern as 
the pirate vessel went broadside to the shore in order 
to present but one flank to attack. Maynard, fearing 
another broadside, ordered his men below, and he and 
the helmsman alone remained on deck as the sloop 
ran alongside the pirate. 

Down below Maynard’s men were ready for the 
word of command that should send them scrambling 
up the pirate’s side. Up on Teach’s deck men 
lined the side with hand grenades made of case-bottles 
filled with powder, slugs, small shot, and fired with 
a quick-match ; and as the sloop came alongside these 
were hurled down into her. 

Teach, looking over, saw only Maynard and the 
helmsman alive, with many dead men lying about the 
deck, and, thinking that he had effectively put them 
out of the fight, cried to his men : 

“They’re all knocked on the head except three or 
four. Let’s jump in and cut the rest to pieces ! ” 

Down into the sloop, therefore, went Teach and 
fourteen of his cut-throats, expecting an easy triumph. 
The smoke from the grenades obscured things so that 


84 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

Maynard could not see what had happened; but as it 
cleared away, and he realised that he had been boarded, 
he called upon his men, who swarmed up on deck 
and fell like an avalanche upon the pirates. 

Maynard tackled Blackbeard himself. The two fired 
simultaneously, and Teach was wounded slightly, but 
not badly enough to prevent him from engaging in some 
sword play with Maynard. In the midst of that fight- 
ing crowd the two men fought hard and long, neither 
gaining much advantage, until at last Maynard’s sword 
snapped in two, and he seemed at the mercy of the 
pirate. He stepped back quickly, cocked his pistol ; 
but ere he could fire Blackbeard had swung down upon 
him with his cutlass. For a moment it seemed that 
Maynard was done, but, with a yell, one of his men 
hurled himself at Teach, slashed at him with a cutlass 
that gashed his throat and neck and put him off his 
stroke, so that Maynard received only a slight wound 
on his finger. 

Still the fight went on, thirteen men against fifteen, 
the odds in favour of the pirates. The deck was slippery 
with blood; men whom the firing had laid low were 
trampled upon as the yelling, cursing, hacking crowd 
swayed this way and that. Now the fight seemed to be 
going in favour of the pirates, now of the royal crew; 
and Teach cheered on his men savagely, cursing them, 
exhorting them. 

Blackbeard, although wounded in several places, 
was a game scoundrel, and kept on with the fight; he 
was literally covered with pistols, which he kept draw- 
ing and firing; and when the fight ended he was 
smothered with wounds — twenty-five of them ! And 
one wound was mortal, for he dropped dead to the 
deck, to keep eight of his fourteen company in death. 
The other six flung themselves overboard, but were 


Under the Jolly Roger 85 

captured. Then, the second royal sloop coming up, 
the remainder of the pirates on the big sloop were 
attacked, and after a stiff fight they surrendered. 

When the vessel was captured, it was found that 
Teach had arranged for it to be blown up, with its 
living freight, as soon as Maynard boarded her; and 
the negro who had had the task allotted to him was 
with difficulty dissuaded from carrying it out when he 
found out that Teach had been killed. 

Blackbeard’s head was cut off and hung at the 
bowsprit end of the royal sloop, which sailed with it 
to Bath Town, where Maynard, having found papers 
incriminating Governor Eden, forced that gentleman 
to return the spoils that Teach had given him ; and in 
due course sailed back to the men-o’-war with fifteen 
prisoners, who were brought to justice. 

Captain Howell Davis, who adopted much the same 
tactics as the old buccaneers, mutinied ag/ainst his 
captain and assumed command of the ship, which he 
turned into a pirate craft. After several little affairs, 
in which he gained much treasure and many reinforce- 
ments of men, till he had seventy under him, he aimed 
at something higher than merely holding up ships on 
the seas. He thought he would like to capture Gambia 
Castle, on the coast of Guinea, a place where there was 
always a good store of money. Sailing in, he sent all 
his men below, except a few who were needed to work 
the ship, and, coming to anchor under the fort, hoisted 
out a boat, manned it with six men dressed like any 
ordinary sailormen, and sent the doctor and the master 
with them as merchants. 

The governor, named Foyle, had seen the ship come 
in, and sent a company of soldiers down to the shore 
to welcome the new-comers, who were taken into the 


86 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

castle, where the governor greeted them kindly. The 
pirates lied glibly, telling the governor that they were 
from Liverpool, bound for Senegal, but, having been 
chased by a couple of French men-o’-war, had put in 
at Gambia for safety. Would the governor trade with 
them for slaves? Gathering that the merchants had 
a large cargo of plate and iron, the governor agreed 
to barter, asking incidentally whether they had any 
liquor aboard. Davis said they had, and promised 
him a hamper for his own use, if he would care to 
accept it. 

Overwhelmed at the generosity, the governor invited 
Davis and his comrades to dinner with him; Davis 
accepted, but said that he must go on board first to 
see that everything was all right. He would return in 
time for dinner, bringing the liquor with him. 

Davis had been taking notes of everything in the 
fort, and when he got back to his ship was able to 
assure his rascally crew that before night the fort would 
be in their possession — if they didn’t get drunk. They 
promised to be good, and to send twenty men on shore 
directly they saw the flag of the fort struck — the signal 
that Davis had captured it. Davis took the precaution, 
in the evening, of securing the crew of a little sloop 
that lay in the harbour, lest they should hear anything 
and give warning to the governor. 

Then, taking the hamper of liquor, Davis entered 
his boat, which had a number of men in it, each armed 
with two pairs of pistols, carefully hidden, and with 
instructions to mingle with the soldiers in the guard- 
room while Davis was engaged with the governor. 
When Davis fired a pistol through the governor’s 
window they were to set about the soldiers at once, and 
seize all the arms in the guard-room. 

In due course the pirate was with the governor, 


Under the Jolly Roger 87 

waiting dinner, and making a bowl of punch to while 
the time away. Never was man more surprised than 
that luckless governor when, in the midst of the con- 
vivialities, Davis poked a pistol in his face, and told 
him that unless he surrendered the castle and all the 
money it contained, he would shoot him like a dog ! 

What could a man do? the governor evidently 
asked himself. Foyle gave in. Davis and the cox- 
swain, the master and the doctor, having closed the 
door, took possession of all the weapons in the 
governor’s room, and loaded all the pistols. Then 
Davis fired through the window, as arranged. Instantly 
his men in the guard-room got to work; they placed 
themselves between the soldiers and their piled-up arms, 
and, with cocked pistols at the heads of the soldiers, 
called upon them to surrender. They did so; it was 
no use trying to resist ruffians who were so well armed ! 
The soldiers were locked in the room, the flag was 
struck, reinforcements came from the ship, and during 
the day the pirates enjoyed themselves to the full, 
plundering everything, and reaping a fairly rich 
harvest. Davis, who felt he wanted more men, pre- 
vailed upon certain of the soldiers to join him; the 
others he placed on board the sloop, having taken the 
precaution of removing all sails, etc., from her, so 
that they could not escape. 

Then, having got all that was to be obtained, Davis 
ordered the fortification to be destroyed and the guns dis- 
mounted, and, considering it time to be gone, weighed 
anchor. Just as ’the ship was setting sail the pirates 
saw a vessel bearing down upon them. Not know- 
ing what kind of a ship she might be, whether friend 
or foe — they had very few friends, and far too many 
foes ! — Davis had all his men to arms to receive the 
new-comer, who, when near enough, let fly a shot across 


88 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

the pirate’s bows and hoisted the black flag ! Davis, 
overjoyed at the turn of events, returned the compliment 
both with shot and flag, and in a few minutes the two 
captains were hobnobbing together. Davis found that 
the new-comer was a pirate under the command of a 
Frenchman named La Bouse; and, joining forces, the 
precious pair sailed down the coast to Sierra Leone. 

Here they saw a tall ship riding at anchor, and 
decided that she would make a good prize. The thing 
that worried them was that she did not attempt to 
escape, which made them wonder whether she might 
not be a heavily armed vessel, who felt sure of herself 
and didn’t mind a fight. However, Davis sailed in 
boldly, and his ship literally staggered back as she 
received a full and heavy broadside; and up went the 
stranger’s flag — a black one ! Truly Davis was meet- 
ing some queer adventures ! It did not take long to 
explain matters, and Davis and La Bouse found them- 
selves in company with another band of pirates, under 
a rogue named Cocklyn. They fraternised together for 
three days, the first two being spent in true pirate 
fashion — feasting and debauching ; on the third a 
council of war was held, at which it was agreed to join 
forces, Davis being appointed to supreme command. 
However, the friends soon quarrelled amongst them- 
selves, and the three captains nearly came to blows one 
day while they were engaged in a debauch. 

Davis decided that the affair must end at once, before 
worse happened. 

“Hark ye, Cocklyn and La Bouse! ” he cried. “I 
find that, by strengthening you, I have put a rod into 
your hands to whip myself. However, I am still able 
to deal with you both; but since we met in love, 
let us part in love, for it’s very plain that three of a 
trade can never agree.” 


Under the Jolly Roger 89 

The Other pirates saw the wisdom of Davis’s 
opinion, and the result was that they parted company. 
We will leave the others, and follow Davis to his tragic 
end. Ambitious as ever, he captured a big Dutch ship 
with thirty guns in her, and, mounting twenty-seven 
more, sailed to the Isle of Princes, which he thought to 
raid. To the governor he passed himself off as the 
captain of an English man-o’-war searching for pirates. 
The governor welcomed him and feasted him, and, to 
return the compliment, Davis, presenting him with a 
dozen slaves, invited him on board to a feast, asking 
him to bring some of the chief men and friars from the 
island. The governor agreed, and Davis was highly 
pleased, for he had fashioned a little plot whereby, as 
soon as the governor boarded the ship, he and his 
friends were to be taken prisoner, and held to ransom 
for ;^40,ooo. 

Poor Pirate Davis I He was doomed to disappoint- 
ment on this occasion. A negro, watching his oppor- 
tunity, that night slipped overboard, swam to the shore, 
burst like a tornado upon the governor, and warned 
him of the plot. 

Next morning, when Davis went ashore, the 
governor met him with smiling face, invited him to 
join him at the house in a little refreshment, and, chat- 
ting affably, the party walked up. Presently the 
governor shifted somewhat, and at a given signal a 
withering volley was poured in at the pirates, who, with 
one exception, fell to the ground. The plot had failed ! 

Davis, wounded in the bowels though he was, rose 
to his feet and endeavoured to get away; he dropped 
in his tracks, and in the moment of death pulled out 
his pistols, and fired them point-blank at his pursuers. 

When those on board the ship saw what had hap- 
pened, they hurried away post-haste, and, once clear 


90 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

of the island, elected a new captain. The choice fell 
upon Bartholomew Roberts, and a really fine pirate 
chief he made. He was a born fighter and leader of 
men; he stood no nonsense from anyone, and the man 
who disputed his authority knew it to his cost. He 
cared for nobody, and, although we need not follow 
his whole career, he did so much damage amongst 
shipping, both off Africa and America, that his name 
became a byword amongst mariners. He was a terror 
of the seas. 

He cut a picturesque figure when he went fighting. 
He would overhaul a ship, pound at her for all he was 
worth, and then, entering his longboat, row over and 
tackle her. All his men were extravagant in their tastes 
regarding dress, but Roberts was worse than all; he 
dressed in a rich crimson damask waistcoat and breeches, 
wore a large black hat with a crimson feather, a gold 
chain round his neck, with a diamond pendant, a silk band 
hanging from his shoulders to carry his pistols. Thus, 
sword in hand, he led his men to the fight, dashing, 
very often, through a very hail of shot, and, with shouts 
and curses, urging his men on as they tried to board. 
A stiff fight very often ensued, and then the pirates, 
having run the gauntlet of fire, scrambled up the side 
of the ship and, after a fierce hand-to-hand fight, had 
her beaten. 

But, though he played this game many a time with 
much success, Nemesis was at hand. The Royal 
Fortune, as he called his last ship, had as consort the 
Ranger, and the two ships caused such depredation that 
the British cruiser Swallow scoured the seas to find 
them, eventually running them to earth in the River 
Gaboon. The Royal Fortune lay well up the river, but 
the Ranger was at the mouth, and, seeing the Swallow 
approach with portholes closed, her crew hugged them- 



Sword in hand, Roberts led his men to the fight, dashing through a very hail of shot” {see page go) 



Under the Jolly Roger 91 

selves with delight in anticipation of another prize. 
They thought she was a sugar ship, and they badly 
wanted sugar. They therefore hoisted sail and gave 
chase, which was just what the Swallow wanted. Lieu- 
tenant Sun, in command, had realised that the Ranger 
had made a mistake, and he led her on till she was 
well away from the river and out of gunshot of the 
Royal Fortune, which he meant to tackle later on. 

The pirates, lured on by the thought of the sugar 
cargo sped after the Swallow, drew near enough to fire 
their bow chasers, and then opened on the quarry. Up 
went the black flag at the same time — as though the 
Swallow wanted to be told w^ho they were ! — and then, 
after a little further chase, drew alongside and prepared 
to board. The ruffianly looking crew lined the side of 
the Ranger, That moment the lower ports of the 
Swallow opened, and a terrific broadside crashed into 
the side of the astonished pirate. They had been bitten, 
deceived. They cursed their foes and drew off, though 
not before the black flag came fluttering down to the 
deck. Then, having hoisted another Jolly Roger, they 
tried to get away; but the Swallow was swifter than 
their own ship, and her guns better handled, with the 
result that, after a running fight of two hours, the black 
flag came down again, this time struck by the pirates; 
and the Ranger was captured. 

They were a cheerful lot of pirates which the Swallow 
took aboard ; they did not seem to mind the prospect of 
the gallows, but joked and laughed, and treated the 
whole affair as a huge joke. They even tried to blow 
the Ranger up before they were taken off, with the 
pirates and the Navy men on board. Lieutenant Sun 
sent the Ranger into port with a prize crew, and then 
made off for the Gaboon River again, to tackle Roberts, 
in the Royal Fortune, While the fight had been going 


92 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

on, Roberts had been busy; he had captured a ship, 
and was sailing away with her when the Swallow 
sighted him on February 9, 1722. Sun kept as far 
away as possible, so that Roberts should not suspect 
he was being followed, and allowed him to anchor in 
a bay near Cape Lopez for the night. Roberts, who, 
if he had known, might have given the Swallow the 
slip, remained there, all unconscious of the fate coming 
to him. He was at breakfast next morning when news 
was brought him of a tall ship being near at hand. 
Roberts said it must be the Ranger returning, or a 
slave ship ; anyway, it was nothing to get into a turmoil 
about. He soon found his mistake, for the stranger 
hoisted her colour, opened her ports, and showed 
Roberts that he was in for a scrap. 

“It’s only a bite ! ” he cried. “Get ready ! ” 

While his men rushed to arms, Roberts stood on his 
deck in all the glory of his pilfered attire. There came 
to him one of his men who, a deserter from the Navy, 
had once sailed aboard the Swallow, and knew her 
powers. 

“She sails best before the wind,” he said; “and we 
can escape, if we want to, by running for it.” 

Roberts thought a while. He knew that he was 
in a tight corner, for the Swallow^s men were brilliant 
fighters, and she was a sturdy ship. He decided, after 
all, he would run for it, making up his mind that, if 
everything else failed, he would either run the ship 
ashore, and let his men shift for themselves, or else 
dash down upon the Swallow, board her, and blow up 
both ships ! 

So the orders were given, and the Royal Fortune 
swooped down upon the Swallow, intending to give her 
a broadside as she passed. The Swallow opened fire 
as the black flag fluttered aloft; Roberts returned it. 


Under the Jolly Roger 93 

and then swung away. But, just as he thought he was 
safe, the Royal Fortune failed them. Something went 
wrong; she did not answer to the helm, and failed to 
catch the wind. The Swallow drew near ! 

What Roberts would have done it is impossible to 
say ; what he did, however, was to die at that moment. 
A grapeshot hurtled across the deck, struck him in the 
throat, and killed him outright. He dropped to the deck 
in a sitting posture. The helmsman, thinking he was 
fooling, cursed him roundly, and tried to get him on 
his feet, but, finding the pirate chief dead, began to 
cry, and prayed that the next shot might kill him off 
too. The remainder of the ruffians seized the captain 
and pitched him overboard, as he had instructed them 
to do in case of death. 

Then, leaderless, they scarcely knew what to do; 
they were half drunk most of them, and though they 
put up a little resistance, and some of them sought to 
blow up the magazine, they at last struck their flag; 
and the Swallow had cleared Roberts and his herd off 
the sea. 

So much for some of the pirates of long ago. 


BLOCKADE RUNNING 

Tales of Adventure in Eluding Watchful Blockaders 

T he Great War of 19 14- 15 showed what the com- 
mand of the sea really meant. It showed that 
even although the greatest navy in the world had little 
opportunity in the early stages to meet its foes in a 
decisive battle — through the latter lurking in their 
harbours — yet there was much work to be done : the 
guarding of the ocean routes, the exertion of silent pres- 
sure upon the enemy, who found his shipping held 
up in harbour, and was unable to import food by the 
coast even before a blockade had been declared. On 
the other hand, in another chapter we have shown 
how German raiding cruisers also played havoc with 
the Allies’ shipping, and pounced upon outlying places 
— only at last to be brought to book. Here we are 
concerned only with ships that have run blockades, 
slipping through the cordon drawn around coasts, 
running the risk of being sunk or captured. 

To go back to an earlier date, and a war which was 
as nothing compared with the world war, we find that 
during the American Civil War the Federals imposed 
a strict blockade of the southern ports whence the much- 
needed cotton was shipped. As a result cotton soared 
in price, and men found a means to make fortunes by 
slipping into blockaded ports with cargoes of stuff 
ivanted by the Confederates and taking cargoes of 
cotton in their place, and then running the gauntlet of 

94 



“ There was a whoosh ! whoosh ! of a rocket heavenwards — the warning to 
the blockading fleet” {see page 95) 



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Blockade Running 95 

the watchful ships. Blockade-running attracted hardy 
adventurers of all nationalities — men to whom adventure 
was the spice of life, and who, incidentally, found the 
spice pretty hot ! 

One of the most daring of these runners was Captain 
Hobart, an Englishman who joined the Royal Navy in 
1836, worked hard and well in the suppression of the 
slave trade in South America, served later in the 
Crimean War, retiring in i860. When the Civil War 
broke out he took service as a blockade-runner, and 
many were the daring trips he made. Wilmington was 
his favourite port, although at the mouth of the river 
the Federal fleet were in strong force, bombarding Fort 
Fisher and keeping up the blockade, holding up ships 
that were not fortunate enough to slip by in the night, 
and chasing those which did not stop on command. 

Hobart didn’t stop, although on one occasion he 
was chased for many miles by a Federal cruiser. In his 
cotton-laden ship he had slipped out of the river and 
passed Fort Fisher at eleven o’clock one night, knowing 
full well that lying off the mouth of the river were 
twenty-five ships waiting to catch such as he. 

It was pitch dark, and the blockade-runner, with 
no lights showing, went at full steam ahead through 
the channel over the bar, guided only by the faint lights 
the Confederates had cunningly placed to enable ships 
to enter the river safely. Hobart navigated his vessel 
by these, and crossed the bar; and then saw that a large 
barge had been placed by the Federals at the entrance 
for the purpose of signalling if any ship tried to slip 
out. The cotton ship almost ran the barge down, but 
by quick manoeuvring avoided doing so, and steamed 
on. Next instant there was the whoosh! whoosh! and 
a rocket sped heavenwards — the warning to the blockad- 
ing fleet. Then there was the boom of a gun; but 


g6 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

Hobart pushed forward, turned eastward, steaming a 
mile or so from the coast. Now and then there came 
the sound of guns being fired, sometimes quite close 
at hand; but they saw no ship, neither were they seen 
by any apparently, for nothing untoward happened 
until about nine o’clock the next morning, when 
through the rising mist they saw a large cruiser bearing 
down upon them. 

It was a case of running for it, and the cotton ship 
sped on with her engines pounding out every ounce of 
power there was in them. After her came the cruiser, 
gaining at every yard, for the cargo of the runner was 
very heavy, and she was unable to show a clean pair 
of heels to the pursuer. 

Some of the bales of cotton were shifted aft in order 
to sink the screws as deep as possible, and so increase 
the speed; but even this did not help them much, and 
the cruiser was still gaining. Then Hobart had a 
stroke of luck. About a mile in front of him he saw 
peculiar ripples which he knew betokened the proximity 
of the Gulf Stream. If he could only get his ship into 
the stream quickly he might stand a chance of escape, 
for the Gulf Stream, going at the rate of three miles 
an hour, would help them on their way considerably. 
The course was altered at once, and the cotton ship 
sped on towards the stream, into which she entered; 
and immediately her speed was accelerated. Meanwhile, 
the cruiser had also changed course, but had not got 
into the bosom of the stream, with the result that after 
a time Hobart found he had gained some seven miles 
on her. 

Then about twelve o’clock the cruiser entered the 
stream, and again the distance between the two ships 
lessened, till by five o’clock only about three miles 
separated them; and shortly after the cruiser opened 


Blockade Running 97 

fire without result. Seven o’clock, and she was still 
nearer, for her shots went over the cotton ship, and 
Hobart began to think it was a case of giving up. 
Then night fell, and the sky was overcast; fortunately 
the cotton ship was in shadow cast by the moon shining 
over edge of clouds. This made a huge difference to 
their chance of escape, for when it came out from behind 
the clouds it showed the chasing cruiser quite plainly, 
but did not reveal her quarry, although she was barely a 
mile away. Luck was certainly on Hobart’s side ! 

Changing his course, in order to confuse his pursuer, 
who was still firing guns in rapid succession, although 
she could not see her aim, Hobart presently gave the 
order to “Stop!” and the cotton ship came to rest, 
steam was blown off under water, and the still and silent 
ship remained there till presently the men on board 
saw the cruiser go racing past them, firing madly at 
nothing I 

Hobart got that cargo of cotton through all right I 

Another Confederate blockade-runner was Captain 
William Watson, of the Rob Roy schooner. He was 
also a dispatch-carrier on the occasion we are about to 
narrate, Major-General Magruder having entrusted him 
with important documents which he was to deliver to 
the Confederate States consul at Havana. 

The night decided on to make the run was dark, 
and there was a good strong wind, but an uncertain 
one; outside the mouth of the Brazos River lurked a 
number of Federal cruisers and gunboats. Watson 
had for company two other schooners, the Hind and 
the Mary Elisabeth, The Rob Roy took the pilot 
aboard and led the way down the river and over the 
bar; the Rob Roy and the Mary Elizabeth managed to 
get away without being seen, but the Hind dropped 
astern and was captured. Once clear of the mouth 

H 


g8 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

of the river the other two schooners sped under all the 
sail they dare hoist, having to be sparing with it lest 
the white show against the cliffs and reveal their pres- 
ence. They had something like ten or eleven hours of 
darkness before them, and hoped to be well away from 
the watchful cruisers by that time. A gale sprang up, 
for which they were thankful, as it carried the ships 
along at a rattling pace. The Mary Elizabeth, however, 
was separated from the Rob Roy, which romped 
through the seas at a speed thatjielighted Watson, for 
by noon next day they had come- a hundred and thirty 
miles without anything unforeseen happening. The 
only unfortunate thing was that the ship was now in 
the track of Federal cruisers searching for blockade- 
runners between New Orleans and Point Isabel ; and 
while Watson was thinking seriously of this the wind 
dropped and the schooner was becalmed. The sails 
were lowered, so that the ship should not be so notice- 
able to any passing vessel, and Watson paced his deck 
eating his head off with impatience, expecting every 
minute to see a cruiser on the horizon. At two o’clock 
he saw a ship which he knew spelt danger. Instantly 
he made up his mind what to do. In the Brazos River 
they had picked up a couple of sweeps, and these were 
brought into use, together with boat oars. Then all 
the men available bent their backs to the task of rowing 
the schooner ! They steered her so that she would go 
out of the course of the new-comer, and after working 
like niggers for goodness knows how long they man- 
aged to get her three miles, and then saw the other 
vessel pass them seven miles away. Watson thanked 
his lucky stars that he had taken in his sails, for 
the bare poles he knew would be scarcely visible to 
a steamer at such a distance away. 

So far, so good. Towards evening a light breeze 


Blockade Running 99 

came up, sails were set once more, and the schooner 
went on her way until early next morning, when the 
wind dropped again, and the sails were lowered as 
before. She was becalmed for that day and the follow- 
ing night; and in the morning there appeared a large 
ship which some of the men aboard were sure was a 
man-0 ’-war. So it was out sweeps again to get the 
schooner out of danger. When they were some nine 
miles away from the man-o’-war the wind came up, 
which — strange how men get what they want when they 
would rather be without it ! — they regarded as un- 
fortunate, for they dared not hoist sail lest they be 
discovered. 

Eventually, however, it was decided to take the risk, 
and every inch of canvas was crowded on, and away 
sped the Rob Roy, Watson hoping to get clear before 
the man-o’-war had a chance to hoist her sails. They 
had gone some distance when they noticed that the 
wind had caught the warship, and that she had hoisted 
all her canvas and was pelting along after them as 
fast as she could sail. Watson suddenly tacked, and the 
large vessel, keeping on her port tack, passed by to 
leeward some six miles away. Then, when she tacked 
about to follow them, Watson went back to his old 
course, and once more gained on her, for every time 
the warship changed course she had to lose way. 

So the queer chase went on ; but the warship gained 
upon the Rob Roy, and Watson’s one hope was that 
he would be able to keep at a safe distance, out of range 
of her guns, until night fell, when he would stand a 
better chance of giving her the slip. The sailors on the 
man-o’-war, anticipating that the wind would soon drop, 
worked hard to get their vessel as near to the runaway 
as possible, so that if that should happen they might 
be able to tackle her in their boats. Watson knew this. 


100 


The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

and still kept tacking about to increase the distance, 
until at last the wind did fall and the two ships were 
becalmed. 

The man-o’-war was some four miles off then, and 
Watson had his sweeps and oars out again, the men 
falling to with a will; but as there was a slight sea 
against them they were not able to propel the ship so 
far as they had done previously. Soon Watson saw 
a couple of boats put off from the warship, their men 
pulling with all their might, hoping to catch the 
schooner before the breeze came up again. When they 
were a mile away the wind came, and the Bob Roy, 
aided by the sweeps, began to make some way, but 
not sufficient to outpace the boats, one of which came 
to within a quarter of a mile. The men on board now 
began to think that all was up, that they might just as 
well surrender; and Watson got his dispatches ready 
to throw overboard. He had wrapped them in canvas, 
weighted with a piece of chain, so that they should sink 
and not fall into the enemy’s hands. 

Just when it seemed that they must be overhauled 
the wind became stronger, and the men, working hard 
at their sweeps, the sails bulging out as they caught the 
breeze, carried the schooner along at a pace that soon 
left the boats far behind; and the men stood up and 
waved their hands tauntingly to the sailors who had 
thought to have them in a few minutes. 

A rifle-shot rang out across the waters, then others, 
and the bullets whistled across the deck, narrowly miss- 
ing the men. The warship now made after her boats, 
to pick them up, and this gave the Rob Roy a better 
chance of escape. Then the wind freshened so much 
that Watson became nervous; too much wind was not 
good for the overladen Rob Roy, and the sea was 
getting very boisterous. To make matters worse, the 


Blockade Running loi 

schooner was leaking very badly, and some of the men 
had to be told off to work the pumps for all they were 
worth. 

As night fell the warship had gained considerably, 
and opened fire with her guns, the shots, however, fall- 
ing short. Then the Rob Roy was hidden by the dark- 
ness. Watson at once changed his tack in order to 
baffle the pursuer, and all through the night the 
schooner scudded before the wind, and by morning had 
left the cruiser far behind, reaching Tampico in due 
course without further adventure. 


ADVENTURES ON A DESERT ISLAND 

The Story of Some Castaways — and a Scoundrel 

I N October, 1628, there sailed from the Texel a Dutch 
ship, the Batavia, under the command of Captain 
Francis Pelsart. Now Pelsart wasn’t the best of navi- 
gators, and after having been at sea for nine months he 
lost his way on a trackless ocean, and, though he did 
not know it, he was close to the islands known as 
Houtman’s Abrohos, or Houtman’s Rocks, off the 
west coast of Australia — the seas in that quarter of the 
globe not being, as every schoolboy knows, the best 
known in those far-off days. As a matter of fact. 
Captain Pelsart was having a run of hard luck — lost, 
sick, and with a coming wreck in front of him, and not 
far off, either. While Pelsart lay in his cabin, with- 
out warning of any kind except the booming of the 
breakers, the Batavia went pounding on a shoal off 
Houtman’s Rocks, where she stuck fast. 

Jumping out of his cabin, Pelsart rushed on deck, 
and, seeing the position of things, soundly rated the 
master for his neglect; whereupon that worthy pointed 
out, quite convincingly, that he wasn’t to blame, seeing 
that as the place where they were had not been visited 
by anyone else before — so far as he knew — how was he 
to know the reefs and shoals? This argument, of 
course, commended itself to Pelsart, who, realising that 
the best must be made of a bad job, bethought himself 
of getting the Batavia off the shoal. He had the 


102 


Adventures on a Desert Island 103 

cannon with which the ship was armed pitched over- 
board, in the hope that this would lighten her suffi- 
ciently to float her. But the Batavia refused to be 
floated, and when a sudden and heavy squall came down 
on her Pelsart really thought everything was over; but 
the Batavia weathered it all right, and, taking a last 
desperate chance, the captain ordered the mainmast to 
be cut away. This was done, but in such a way that, 
instead of going clear over, it fell on the deck. 

Convinced finally that there was no chance of 
getting his ship off, Pelsart wondered what was to be 
done for the safety of his passengers and crew. Just 
a little distance away, in the bright moonlight, he could 
see two small islands, while some three leagues off lay 
a larger island. He resolved to have the islands in- 
spected to see what they were like, and therefore sent 
the master of the ship on that errand. Meanwhile, on 
board the Batavia reigned a miniature pandemonium; 
women were shrieking, children crying, grown men 
were raving; and the ship was beginning to break up, 
so that altogether poor Pelsart had his hands full, and 
was relieved when the master returned and reported 
favourably on the islands. There were, all told, 230 
people on board, and, women and children going first, 
120 were landed on the large island and forty on the 
smaller one near at hand, leaving seventy still to be 
landed. These also would have been rescued but for 
the fact that the crew behaved as no sailors ever should ; 
they began to drink heavily, and got out of hand, for 
which reason only a very few barrels of water were 
landed, and twenty barrels of bread. Now, one would 
imagine that a castaway crowd’s first thought would be 
to conserve the food they had got, but this particular 
crowd did quite the other thing, and began to waste 
both food and water, with the result that one of the 


104 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

crew went back to the ship, by which Pelsart was still 
standing, telling him not to send any more provisions 
for a while. Pelsart therefore went ashore, leaving an 
officer and seventy men on the ship. 

Arrived on shore, the captain discovered that the tale 
brought to him was quite correct; scarcely any water 
was left. Resolved to make this good, he tried to return 
to the ship to supervise the sending of further barrels; 
but the weather had become too rough for him to 
venture, and he had to hold back. Meanwhile, the 
ship’s carpenter, taking his life in his hands, swam 
ashore with the news that the ship’s crew on board 
were in a pretty bad way, and that unless something 
were done they would be all flung headlong into the 
sea when the ship broke up. Pelsart, unable to go 
himself, prevailed upon the carpenter to go back and 
tell the crew to hold on a while, and busy themselves 
with making rafts on which to float to shore. But 
the crew, although they did all they could, were un- 
able to get to shore because the sea was now running 
heavier than ever, and to trust oneself on the pounding 
waves was to court disaster. Therefore they had to 
remain on the wreck, while Pelsart fumed and fretted 
at the thought of not being able to do anything for 
them. 

Neither the larger island nor the smaller one, on 
which Pelsart himself was stranded, had any water be- 
sides that which had been brought; and this was little 
enough, in all conscience. The people who had been 
so prodigal of it at the beginning now came to see 
that without water they would surely perish. What 
was to be done? Water they must have; and they 
urged Pelsart to go to some of the neighbouring islands 
in quest of it. 

With a captain’s loyalty to his ship’s company. 


Adventures on a Desert Island 105 

Pelsart refused to go without the consent of all. Why 
should he take the main chance of being able to get 
away to safety while all the others remained stranded, 
cast away without means of sustenance? No, if he 
went at all, everyone must agree to his going. The 
folk on the small island argued with him, but argued 
in vain. 

“I’ll go over there,” he said, pointing to the larger 
island, with its 120 poor souls, “and get their consent; 
or else I’ll go back to the ship and perish with her.” 

There was no gainsaying that, anyway; and so 
they let him push off the boat, taking in her a crew 
sufficient to work her. They were a wily clique, that 
crew ! When the captain got well away from the island 
they refused to take him to the other island. They 
feared, no doubt, that the people there would not agree 
to Pelsart’s going, and they knew that out at sea 
Pelsart was helpless against them. The captain raved, 
threatened; but raved and threatened in vain. They 
would not let him go, and when he jumped up and 
made as though he would fling himself overboard and 
swim back, they none too gently grabbed at him and 
held him down by force. 

Pelsart scowled and growled at his mutinous crew; 
but neither black looks nor hard words moved them, and 
eventually Pelsart had to come to an arrangement 
whereby he agreed to go in search of water, provided 
he received a manifesto, signed by all his men, approv- 
ing of this. Things being fixed up thus, the captain 
at last set out on his quest; and a long, long quest it 
proved to be. 

Day after day he sailed amongst the islands, seek- 
ing water, but finding none; and all the time the 
supplies were running short. At last he resolved to 
go farther afield, and struck off across the trackless sea. 


io6 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

and in a little while found himself off the coast of 
Australia, then a continent without a shred of civilisa- 
tion. He hit the coast at the spot where Geraldton now 
stands, and tried to put in at a small cove; surf, how- 
ever, romped at the boat, and flung her back each time 
she pushed her nose shorewards. Pelsart at last gave 
up in despair and sailed to the northwards, following 
the coast, looking for a likely spot to land. In due 
course this was found ; but when they did land the men 
found no water, and only succeeded in frightening a few 
natives, who fled for their lives at the sight of the 
strange white men. Off again, to land, probably, at 
the North-West Cape, where they found water — rain 
water ! This was not at all hopeful, and, as the coast 
had been trending away to the east, Pelsart determined 
to strike north-east, where he knew lay Batavia, in Java. 

Twenty-two days after leaving his shipwrecked 
company Pelsart found himself at Batavia, having 
sailed nearly sixteen hundred miles in an open boat. 
At Batavia, in due course, Pelsart was able to obtain 
a frigate, with which he set out to return for his 
castaways. 

Meanwhile, however, things were happening on the 
islands away down south. And such things ! 

The men whom Pelsart had left on the wreck had 
succeeded in getting off in safety after many days of 
anxious waiting, and the last man to leave was the 
supercargo, an ex-apothecary of Haarlem who rejoiced 
in the name of Jerom Cornelis, and who had ambitions. 
He wanted to be a pirate, and thought that he had 
found a splendid opportunity. He worked out his plans 
with delightful thoroughness. First he would kill off 
all the honest men of the company, and then, having 
formed his pirate crew, take the captain by surprise 
when he came back, as he firmly believed he would. 


Adventures on a Desert Island 107 

Probably Cornelis’s further plans allowed for seizing 
Pelsart’s boat, and sailing away with it until he came 
up with some large vessel, whose crew his piratical 
company would eventually succeed in overpowering, 
when they would find themselves in possession of a ship 
suitable for their purpose of scouring the seas. 

But the first step was to get rid of the true men; 
and as there seemed to be more of this calibre than 
Cornelis felt he could deal with at one operation, he 
resorted to an artful ruse. Forty men, under the chap- 
lain and a Mr. Weybhays, were dispatched to another 
island in search of water, with instructions to light three 
fires as a signal of success. The little band were suc- 
cessful, and lighted their beacons as agreed. But there 
was no answer ! 

What had happened? They were soon to know. 
Even at the f^ir distance he was away Mr. Weybhays 
could see that something untoward was taking place on 
the island, and presently several men sprang into the 
sea and began swimming towards him for dear life. 
What a tale they told when they reached the island I 
Hardly had Weybhays left when Cornelis and his 
scoundrelly crew had begun to butcher the honest men 
left behind, and had succeeded in killing nearly forty ! 
Now Weybhays knew why he had not received the 
answering signal ; he had evidently been sent off merely 
to get rid of him and his company while the ex- 
apothecary did his fell work, after which, no doubt, 
their turn would come. 

In this latter surmise Weybhays was right; but first 
Pirate Cornelis had other fish to fry. Away on the 
smaller island were some forty men who had been 
landed before Pelsart departed, and Cornelis decided 
to go over and wipe out all those who would not throw 
in their lot with him. What he was afraid of was that 


io8 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

either party might be able to warn Pelsart on his return, 
and thus frustrate Cornelis’s evil plan. So, without loss 
of time, the pirates rowed over to the small island, 
landed, and after a little trouble with the men, who did 
not really want to die, succeeded in killing them off, 
saving only seven youngsters and five women. On the 
island, also, they found a number of chests which had 
been washed ashore from the wreck, and these they 
broke open. They were filled with rich apparel, and 
the pirates bedecked themselves in wonderful attire, 
Cornelis incidentally forming a bodyguard clothed in 
scarlet livery. He felt almost a king, I’ll wager! 

For some days the pirates had a gorgeous time, 
drinking and rioting, for some of the rum casks had 
been washed ashore. Then, considering it time he 
got to pirate’s business again, the captain-general, as 
he called himself, decided to tackle Weybhays and the 
forty odd men he had with him. Gathering all the 
arms he could find, Cornelis took twenty-two men with 
him in two light shallops, and went over to settle 
accounts with Weybhays. 

Weybhays very nearly settled Cornelis, whose crew 
got a good thrashing and put back to their island, a 
sadder and angrier crowd. The pirate-in-chief, how- 
ever, refused to be scared, and, arming thirty-seven 
men, went back to the attack. He wondered vaguely 
why he had got beaten before, for Weybhays’ men were 
unarmed, except for roughly fashioned clubs, fitted with 
long nails. Cornelis felt that it was a bad start for a 
pirate gang, and determined to wipe the stain out. 
Instead of which, when the second expedition got near 
the island, Weybhays and his men, dashing out into 
the water, fell upon the pirates with vigour, and, after 
a fine scrimmage, succeeded in driving them back, 
beaten a second time. 



“ Weybhays and his men fell upon the pirates” (see page io8) 



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Adventures on a Desert Island 109 

Cornelis felt hurt. He could see his plans being 
altogether upset unless he could cope with Weybhays, 
and clearly he and his dastardly crew were no match for 
that fearless man and his gallant company when it came 
to fighting. He must try other means; and try them 
quickly, lest Pelsart return and Weybhays be able to 
warn him. 

Cornelis therefore thought of a scheme to outwit 
Weybhays. Amongst the latter’s party were two 
French soldiers, whom the pirate thought might be 
willing to come to terms with him and play the traitor — 
if he could but get into communication with them. He 
opened up negotiations with Weybhays, hoping thereby 
to be able to correspond with the Frenchmen. 

He promised Weybhays that, if the latter would 
return the boat he had, his party should not again be 
attacked, and that some of the salvage from the 
Batavia should be given up. Weybhays agreed to this 
after a while, and Cornelis hugged himself as he 
thought that, without a boat, Weybhays could not warn 
Pelsart when he appeared ; and he hugged himself more 
when, during the negotiations, he succeeded in smug- 
gling letters to the Frenchmen, offering them six 
thousand livres each if they would turn traitor to 
Weybhays, who had insisted upon the treaty being 
drawn up in proper order and being signed by both 
parties. 

The captain-general, sure in his own mind that the 
Frenchmen could not resist the temptation of his gold, 
waited serenely for the morning to come, when he was 
to go over to Weybhays’ island and sign the treaty; 
but in the meantime the gallant French soldiers had 
decided that it was better to be honest than to be 
pirates, and they therefore warned Weybhays. 

Morning came, and with it Cornelis and three or 


no 


The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

four of his men. He was in high spirits, anticipating 
that he was about to get the better of Weybhays. In- 
stead, he received a shock. Weybhays, making no sign 
that he knew aught of Cornelis’s stratagem, went down 
to the beach and helped him run his boat up ; and then, 
before Cornelis knew what had happened, Weybhays 
and his men fell upon him, knocked him on the head, 
and put hors de combat two of his companions, the 
others succeeding in escaping in the boat. 

Poor old Cornelis ! When he came round he found 
himself trussed like a fowl for the cooking. Gone all 
his lofty hopes, shattered all his ambitions. Weybhays 
had triumphed. 

But away on the other island Cornelis’s ruffianly 
crew were plotting and planning on his behalf — ^also on 
their own, by the way, for they felt that Cornelis was 
the corner-stone of their own safety, and that unless 
he were free they did not know how to cope with 
Pelsart, should he return. So without delay they 
tumbled into their boats and went over to Weybhays’ 
island, intending to do great deeds and rescue Cornelis. 
Weybhays was ready for them, and sent them scuttling 
off again — soundly beaten I 

And then a frigate appeared on the horizon; and 
though the pirates did not know it, albeit they made 
a very good guess, Pelsart was standing on her deck, 
looking across at the islands he had left so many days 
ago. He was wondering what had happened during his 
absence, whether his company were still alive, or 
whether they had starved to death or died of thirst. 
He little knew that there had been worse foes than 
hunger and thirst at work ! 

Presently a column of smoke lifted its filmy head 
over one of the islands, and Pelsart realised that some 
at least still lived. A boat was lowered immediately. 


Adventures on a Desert Island m 

filled with provisions, and Pelsart embarked in her 
and started to make for the island. At the same instant 
a small boat sped out from Weybhays’ island; in her 
was Weybhays, who, when he reached Pelsart’s boat, 
hastily told the captain his story, and urged him to 
return to the frigate, named the Sardam, lest the pirates 
put out and overpower him. 

Pelsart looked at Weybhays as though he were 
bereft of his senses; but confirmation of his words was 
soon forthcoming, for suddenly a couple of boats shot 
out from the larger island, and began speeding towards 
Pelsart’s boat. That was enough. Off went Pelsart 
to the frigate, followed hard by Weybhays. It was a 
race for life ; and Pelsart won. Just as he had scrambled 
aboard the pirate boats drew alongside. 

And a gallant-looking crowd they were I Their 
fanciful costumes showed signs of bad handling by 
Weybhays, but their weapons — swords and pistols — 
looked very workmanlike, and when Pelsart asked them 
what they meant by daring to come near the ship in 
such a condition, they replied that they would very 
soon show him. And they began trying to board the 
frigate. 

Pelsart’s answer was quick and to the point. 

“You see that gun?” he cried, pointing to one of 
the frigate’s cannons, frowning down at them. “If 
you don’t surrender — and at once — I’ll have it sink you 
where you lay ! ” 

There was no arguing with that gun. The pirates 
laid down their arms, very soon to be joined by their 
whilom captain-general, and in a little while were on 
board the Sardam — in irons. Their piracy had come to 
an inglorious end. 

That night the frigate lay off the islands, and next 
day a boat was sent off to try conclusions with the re- 


II2 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

mainder of the mutineers, who, however, seeing that the 
game was up, flung down their arms and surrendered. 

There is little more to be told. The wreck was salved 
of all that was valuable in her ; the gold and silver that 
Cornelis and his ruffians had purloined was collected 
and taken on board the Sardam, where, of course, the 
remainder of Weybhays* company had already found 
quarters. And then Pelsart held a court. Cornelis and 
his would-be pirates were tried, and executed on the 
spot. It was no time for delay, because the Sardam 
contained a goodly treasure, and to keep Cornelis 
would be to run the risk of the ambitious scoundrel 
breaking out again. Then Pelsart weighed anchor and 
went his way, after a series of adventures such as seldom 
fall to a man’s lot. 


ADRIFT WITH MADMEN 

The Burning of the “ Columbian,” and the Sequel 

O N May 3, 1914, there flashed across the ether a 
wireless message, picked up at Sable Island, as 
brief as it was dramatic; “Hurry up! We are on 
fire ! ” No ship’s name was given, nor indication as 
to position, and the world held its breath and wondered. 

Then, two days later, the Cunard liner Franconia 
picked up a boat containing thirteen survivors from the 
steamer Columbian ; and as they had been adrift since 
the 3rd, a connection was at once seen between the 
faint, incoherent wireless message and the Columbian, 
A little later the Manhattan rescued fourteen more 
Columbian survivors, including Captain McDonald, 
from whom it was found that yet a third boat, with 
sixteen men, was missing. Immediately all the ships 
round about were notified, and a search was prosecuted ; 
but it was not until thirteen days after the disaster that 
the boat was found, and in her were only five men. 
The rest had died. 

Behind this epitome there is one of the great tragic 
stories of the sea. 

It was during the night that, with startling sudden- 
ness, there was a terrific explosion which shook the ship 
from stem to stern. First Officer Tiere, whose watch it 
was, instantly gave the fire call, and the crew — some of 
whom were asleep, others at their posts of duty — rushed 
up on deck. Smoke issued from below, and told them 


I 


II4 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

what had happened. Then there was another mighty 
explosion, in the coal bunkers this time, and the whole 
deck was ripped up as though it had been made of tin- 
foil. There followed clap after clap, as hatches were 
burst open by other explosions, and in an incredibly 
short time the whole ship was one blazing mass. So 
instantaneously had the calamity fallen upon them that 
there was no time to lose, no time even to dress or to 
put sufficient provisions into the boats, which were 
immediately lowered. Men, scantily attired, some only 
in vests and pants, tumbled into them, and strong backs 
bent to the oars, seeking to pull away from the terrific 
heat and to get out of the range of danger from the 
ship, which seemed as though she must soon go down. 

What followed was a nightmare — especially for those 
in First Officer Tiere’s boat, the story of which is to 
be told here. She carried sixteen souls, with only a 
twenty-gallon cask of water and a tank of biscuits to 
last them till — till they were picked up. In these days, 
when the seas are ploughed by thousands of ships, it 
seems incredible that a boat should be at the mercy of 
wind and wave for many days before being picked up ; 
but it is always the unlikely thing that happens, and 
these castaways little realised how long it was to be 
before they were rescued. Soon it seemed to them 
as though rescue would never come. But that is 
anticipating. 

When the boat pushed off from the flaming 
Columbian there was a strong southerly wind blowing, 
which carried them to the northward. They had no 
navigating instruments on board, and the weather was 
misty; they were thus helpless in their endeavours to 
keep in the track of shipping, on which their sole chance 
of rescue depended. 

Anxious eyes peered through the darkness to catch 


Adrift with Madmen 115 

glimpses of passing lights ; at any moment they knew 
that some mighty leviathan might push out of the 
blackness, and smash into their frail craft before they 
could cry aloud, even if their voices would be heard 
above the noise. Fortunately this did not happen, and 
towards morning their eyes were gladdened by the 
gleam of lights in the distance, coming nearer and 
nearer. Salvation was at hand, they told themselves, 
and hunted about, seeking matches, so that they might 
give a feeble light to the racing greyhound. But not 
a dry match could they find; a great sea had been 
shipped as the boat was lowered, and every match was 
useless. 

Torn with agony, those sixteen men stood up in 
their boat and screamed themselves hoarse, hoping 
against hope that the sound would carry to the big 
ship, which, because of her size, they believed was the 
liner Olympic, But, though they yelled till their voices 
cracked and they were exhausted, no sign came that 
they had been heard, and the Olympic, a floating, 
gleaming palace, passed them by. 

Despair now seized them; but, as the grey fingers 
of the dawn crept up, they took heart again, believing 
that they could not be passed by in daylight as they 
had been in the darkness. They were to be disillusioned 
once more, for presently they saw, about six or seven 
miles away, a large tramp steamer, to which they 
signalled frantically, using Tiere’s raincoat on an oar to 
wave with. They waved till their arms ached, taking 
it in turn; but the tramp passed on, and left them 
despondent, crazed. 

During the afternoon hope was born afresh; away 
— far away — they saw a big liner heave in sight, and 
then come to a standstill. Eyes strained across the 
water, and presently the castaways realised that the 


ii6 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

new-comer was taking a boat on board ; and they came 
to the only conclusion possible, that one of the other 
lifeboats, more fortunate than they, had been noticed. 
Strange as it may seem in the reading, and tragic in 
the event to those who watched, the rescue ship saw 
them not, although she steamed away in a circle, as 
though looking out for any other waifs. She was the 
Franconia, and her human salvage was thirteen souls, 
while within a few miles of her there tossed a boat with 
sixteen men on board, who cried in their anguish as 
they saw her steam off, their hopes dashed for the third 
time. 

First Officer Tiere now found plenty of work to do. 
The sea was very rough, and the lifeboat pitched and 
rolled dangerously. There was no fear of her sinking, 
because she was fitted with air-tanks, but the ever- 
present danger was that she would be overturned as 
the great seas played shuttlecock with her. The men 
worked hard at baling her out; and then, to give her 
some sort of steadiness, rigged up a sea anchor out 
of oars and old canvas, and so held her head to the 
seas. All the time a sharp look-out was kept for signs 
of vessels, but none was seen, and Tiere, realising how 
serious things were getting, apportioned the rations. 
The water was allotted out — a pint a day per man, with 
a biscuit per meal; and for a week they subsisted on 
this fare, thinking themselves fortunate. Then the 
water began to give out, and the portion was reduced. 
But economy in this direction meant suffering ; the men, 
weak and faint from want of food, parched with thirst, 
became delirious; and although there was some rain 
on Thursday, the 7th, and some more on the following 
Monday, it did not increase their water-supply suffi- 
ciently to make any difference. 

And some of the men, maddened with thirst, took 


Adrift with Madmen 117 

to drinking sea-water. It was the beginning of the end. 
One man died, mad, on the nth, and they dropped 
him overboard, Tiere saying what part of the burial 
service he could remember. Next day another man 
died, and two more on the following morning — all of 
them victims to their insatiable thirst, which grew more 
maddening as, against all advice, they swallowed great 
gulps of sea-water. 

Tiere, fighting for their lives, when they would not 
fight themselves, commandeered the sole dipper they 
had in the boat, so that they could not drink so much ; 
then, when, exhausted, he would lie down to snatch a 
few hours’ sleep, they would creep round him and steal 
the dipper, and drink the water that meant death until 
he awoke and fought for the cup. Whereupon, with 
the pangs of thirst eating into their very vitals, the 
raving men, shouting curses at him for his interference, 
and defying him to stop them, would lean over the 
gunwales and lap up the water like dogs. 

Then came delirium; raving, cursing, struggling 
mad they went. And then into the Great Unknown, 
singing in their madness. 

Even the men who contented themselves with the 
small portion of fresh water which Tiere had allotted 
to them, even these knew the agonies of that dreadful 
voyage, which was leading nowhere; mists and fogs 
hung around them all day; the cold winds of night 
blew upon them and, in their weakened strength, sapped 
at the very roots of their life. 

Thus the nightmare held on, with death and awful 
suffering to make these unfortunate men sure that it 
was real. They were almost foodless now, as well as 
waterless. 

On the Friday there came the most tragic incident 
of all : Jakob, a big Russian, an oiler of the Columbian, 


ii8 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

thrown off his balance by thirst, had imbibed great 
quantities of salt water. The effects soon began to show 
themselves, and Jakob, a raving maniac, sat in the 
bow of the boat with an axe in his hand, vowing he 
would kill the whole crew. 

“Pm going to shore — getta drink,** he cried, and 
the fear-stricken men expected every moment to see him 
hurl himself overboard. Instead, he sat muttering 
foolishly, toying with the axe they dreaded, leering 
viciously at them, gesticulating savagely. Tiere, 
weakened, emaciated, staggered along towards the six- 
foot Russian; he must get that axe away. There was 
a mist before his eyes, a vagueness in his mind, and 
a half-formed thought that somehow the Russian would 
bring the end sooner were he not disarmed. He talked 
to him, hardly knowing what he said, bullied him, 
coaxed him, humoured him, while the crew looked on 
in anxiety; and the madman at last gave up the axe. 
Then Tiere made him lie down, settled him as com- 
fortably as possible, and himself went to snatch a little 
sleep, of which he was sorely in need. 

For a while all was still ; darkness was now upon 
them ; only the howl of the wind and the lap, lap of 
the water against the sides broke the silence. Then 
slowly along the boat there crept a dark form, with 
madness in its eyes ; it was Jakob, and in his hands he 
carried the boat stretcher. He was making aft to where 
the other men were, intent on killing them all. For- 
tunately someone saw him coming, and instantly all 
were alert, ready for him. 

Cursing in Russian and broken English, Jakob 
hurled himself upon them, vowing to murder them all. 
He wanted the water that was left, and he would have 
it. Aye, he would have it ! The wretched men, 
gathering up the remnants of their once full-blooded 


Adrift with Madmen 119 

Strength, tackled him bravely, wrenching the stretcher 
away and seeking to tie him up. How they fought, 
to the danger of being pitched overboard to death, and 
with the prospect of being kicked to pulp by the 
Russian’s heavy boots ! It was like a scene from some 
book of wild adventure, that fight in so strange a set- 
ting; yet to these men it was real, and life and death 
hung upon its issue. There was no light by which to 
see whether one struck friend or foe, only the curses 
of the Russian to show when a blow landed upon him ; 
and the night was made hideous by yells as the frenzied 
men struggled madly for control. At last it was over : 
the giant lay inert in the bottom of the boat, tied securely 
and lashed to a thwart, where for five or six hours he 
lay screaming, cursing, struggling to release himself, 
and then died. 

Despair — it is a feeble word to describe their feel- 
ings — was now upon the remaining men, who for 
another week were tossed about, hither and thither, 
until they had lost all count of their bearings. The 
sun kept behind the clouds, and fogs and mists en- 
wrapped them in their wet, cold folds. In one sense 
this was a blessing in disguise; it kept the pangs of 
thirst under somewhat. But as they shivered in the 
bottom of the boat, huddling together to keep each 
other warm, they were in no mood to thank Heaven for 
fogs which they knew hid them from passing vessels. 
By Saturday morning eleven men had died and been 
thrown overboard, and the five survivors looked dumbly 
at each other, reading in bleared eyes the question, 
“Whose turn next?” 

It was the turn of Peter Preive, the messroom 
steward, of whom a strange story is told. Before he 
left Antwerp on the Columbian he had dreamed a dream 
— that he would be a fortnight adrift in an open boat 


120 


The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

before he died. On the morning of the thirteenth 
day Preive lay at the point of death, for the hundredth 
time telling his comrades his dream and assuring them 
they would be picked up on the morrow. 

It sounds like fiction, but it is solid fact, and those 
mariners took heart of courage : if some parts of the 
dream had come true, why not another? And so they 
lived on, as they had for some days past, with Preive’s 
dream as encouragement, though they could not alto- 
gether look with equanimity upon the prospect before 
them; ere the fourteenth day dawned some of those 
five that remained might have gone to join their 
comrades I 

They had been reduced now to trying to make a 
paste out of the boot leather and the remains of the 
biscuits — anything to stave off hunger. But even their 
craving stomachs could not take kindly to the mixture, 
and the men knew that they were now face to face with 
death at last. They looked in the biscuit tank again, 
and found there — crumbs, simply a few crumbs, which 
they scooped up in order to mix some more of the 
unpalatable paste. And then, like a messenger of hope, 
they saw a smudge on the horizon, watched it grow 
larger and denser, saw the hull of a ship grow out of 
the mist. Four of them yelled themselves hoarse again, 
waved their signal, took out their oars and tugged away 
at them like mad. They bent their backs to the work, 
they pulled till their arms ached, and got hardly any 
way on her; they were too weak to pull against the sea 
effectively. Then the big ship stopped, and they saw 
her taking some soundings. She got up steam again 
and moved forward; and the castaways knew that they 
had been seen. 

The reaction set in ; the men who had borne up 
for thirteen days against hunger, thirst, who had fought 


Adrift with Madmen 12 1 

against madness and death, crumpled up and fell in 
the bottom of their boat. They were done. 

Meanwhile the big ship was punching her way 
towards them. She was the Seneca (Captain Johnson), 
who had been searching for the missing lifeboat for 
many days, having crossed from the spot where the 
Columbian burnt out to Nova Scotia and back time 
after time without sighting the unfortunate men. The 
captain had, indeed, given up hope of ever finding 
them ; and when the look-out sighted the boat, and the 
Seneca plunged towards her at full steam. Captain 
Johnson scarcely believed it possible that anyone could 
be alive in her. 

When they came up with her they saw the five men 
lying in the bottom of the boat, helpless, emaciated, 
eyes sunken, bodies trembling. Preive, alive when the 
Seneca came up, died from the shock of the sight of 
her; Tiere, who had commanded all through, and had 
done much to encourage the others, tried to lift himself 
up, but fell back exhausted, and the other four living 
men had to be helped out of their boat. 

Their cruise was at an end. They were saved; but 
the terror of it will never leave them. 


FRANCIS DRAKE’S RAID ON THE 
SPANISH MAIN 

How Drake Took Toll for Spanish Treachery 

I N 1567 Francis Drake had accompanied John 
Hawkins on a slave-trading expedition to the 
Spanish Main; the worthy pair had gone across to 
Africa, where they had captured a number of Africans, 
whom they shipped to the West to sell as slaves, seeing 
that the Spaniards were sorely in need of labourers. 
Now, it was a maxim with the Dons that the Wealthy 
West was for Spaniards only, and they very much re- 
sented the coming of the Englishmen, so that, while 
professing the desire to trade with them, they really 
played them false ; and it was only by the skin of their 
teeth that Hawkins and Drake managed to escape to 
England, even then having to leave a number of their 
men in the hands of the Spaniards. 

Drake was angry. He vowed vengeance. Hence- 
forth he determined not to go on trading expeditions, 
but to sally forth to the Spanish Main to take toll of 
the riches that the Spaniards were harvesting year by 
year. He did nothing in a hurry; he worked things 
out, went on a voyage or so to get the lie of the land, 
and in 1572 left Plymouth — bound for Panama ! On 
one of his previous voyages he had laid up stores at 
a place on the mainland which he had called Port 
Pheasant, because he had seen a great number of those 
birds flying about there. Arrived at Port Pheasant on 
122 


Drake’s Raid on the Spanish Main 123 

this new voyage, he received a mild sort of shock. 
Nailed to a tree was a leaden letter : 

“Captain Drake, 

“// you have fortune to come into the port, make 
haste away, for the Spaniards which you had with you 
last year have betrayed this place, and taken away all that 
you left here, I departed hence this present yth of July, 

1572. 

**Your loving friend, 

“John Garret.” 

Now, although Drake knew the seriousness of the 
position, he refused to be frightened away. He had 
work to do — the fitting up of his pinnaces — ^and he 
resolved to do this before leaving. He therefore set 
his men to work, and in a week was ready to sail for 
Nombre de Dios, his first place of call on the Spaniards. 
Just as he was about to start there came to the port 
an English barque commanded by Captain James 
Rouse, who threw in his lot — ^and his thirty-eight men 
— with Drake; and the company set sail for Nombre 
de Dios. At a small island called the Isle of Pines 
they stopped a while, and Drake appealed to the 
cupidity of his men, in the hope of making them even 
firmer than ever in their determination to do their 
utmost. 

“Comrades,” he cried, “before us lies the world’s 
treasure-house. You are brave; and with your help 
I am confident of success. Follow me, and yours shall 
be the Spaniard’s wealth; yours shall be the fame that 
comes from great deeds, and we shall be able to take 
to your Queen much treasure and have good stores for 
ourselves ! ” 

That put good heart into his men, and when they 


124 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

came to Nombre de Dios they were ready for anything, 
although they murmured, some of them, against attack- 
ing in daylight, as was Drake’s intention. However, 
Drake had to alter his plans, for when they came into 
the harbour they found a big ship there. Someone 
aboard saw them, and the vessel was headed for the 
shore to give the alarm. The English soon stopped 
her little game; the pinnaces raced after her, headed 
her off to seaward, and then, feeling safe, the men 
landed, fondly believing that they were unnoticed. 

They were mistaken. While the rest of the 
garrison slept or made merry, or were on guard to 
landward against an attack from Cimaroons, one gunner 
was at his post in the fort. One gunner, one shot, 
and the town was in alarm ; and away went the Spaniard 
racing into the town to tell of the coming of the hated 
English. There ensued a hubbub in Nombre de Dios; 
bells rang out their tocsin call, trumpets blared, drums 
rolled, and men rallied up to withstand the foe. As 
for Drake, he grasped the situation promptly, and had 
his plan working without delay. He divided his men 
into two companies, leading one himself and sending 
the other forward under his brother John and John 
Oxenham, hoping by this means to delude the 
Spaniards into thinking that a large force had come 
against them. 

It was a queer scene. Every man Jack of Drake’s 
companies carried a firepike, whose flaming torch lit 
up the place weirdly; they made unearthly noises on 
trumpets, and rent the air with war-cries which struck 
terror into the Spaniards. So much so that, hearing 
the advance of men from two quarters, the Dons, 
forgetting all about the treasure in their stores, took to 
their heels and ran for dear life. 

It was all so easy, thought the Englishmen; and 


Drake’s Raid on the Spanish Main 125 

then found they had counted their chickens before they 
were hatched, for when they reached the market-place 
they saw that the Spaniards had taken new courage 
and had massed themselves for a gallant fight. More- 
over, they, too, had resorted to a stratagem; they had 
strung a line of lights across the dark street, and made 
it appear that there were many, many men with torches 
awaiting the foe ! 

Nothing loath to accept a good fight, Drake’s men 
■plunged in ; and although the Dons met them boldly 
and fought well, nothing could stop the men out for 
treasure and revenge. Using their firepikes as weapons, 
they charged the Spaniards, and although Drake and 
others were wounded, and the trumpeter was killed, 
they put the Dons to flight, and found themselves 
in possession of Nombre de Dios, with the treasure of 
King Philip theirs for the taking ! 

They hurried to the governor’s house, where they 
saw much treasure in the form of stacks of silver bars; 
they marched to the treasure-house, which Drake 
ordered them to force open. They proceeded to do so. 
But just then a terrific thunderstorm broke over the 
town; the men were drenched to the skin, their bows, 
with which they had done good work in the attack, 
were loosened and rendered useless, so that they began 
to fear lest the Spaniards, whom they could hear mass- 
ing on the hills after their flight, should burst down 
upon them, when they would be practically powerless 
against them. 

They spoke of going back to the boats, but Drake, 
who heard them, chaffed them for their cowardice. He 
knew it wasn’t that ! 

“ You would fly ! ” he cried. “ On the very threshold 
of the world’s treasure-house you would fly I I have 
brought you to the mouth of the treasury of the world, 


126 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

which if you do not gain none but yourselves will be 
to blame I Break open the treasure-house I ” 

And without waiting to see if they followed he 
sprang at the door to set them the example; but even 
as he did so his sight failed him, the strength which had 
been ebbing with the flow of the blood from his wound 
gave out, and he fell, a crumpled heap, at the threshold ! 

Instantly all were alarmed, and they fell to binding 
up his wound. That done, they urged him to come 
away. But Drake refused to budge ; whereupon, know- 
ing how much depended upon his safety, they picked 
him up in their strong arms and carried him to his 
pinnace. Not all his entreaties or threats could move 
them, and the only satisfaction he could get out of 
them was : 

“What’s the good of the treasure of the Spanish 
Main if we have not Francis Drake?” 

Thus it was that Drake found himself back in his 
pinnace, heading out for sea. But the night’s adven- 
tures were by no means over. In the harbour they 
found a big ship coming in. They promptly boarded 
her and took her, finding her to be well stocked with 
wines and other good things; and, taking her along 
with them, they made their way to a small island a 
little distance from Nombre de Dios, where they rested 
and refreshed themselves. 

The Spaniards discovered where they were, and sent 
a messenger to Drake; they wanted to make sure who 
had attacked them. Drake received the emissary 
courteously, answered his questions frankly, assured 
him that the English arrows were not poisoned, and 
that he was indeed Francis Drake; gave him a present 
for himself, and then sent him back with a message 
to the Governor. 

“Tell him,” he said, “to keep his eyes open, for if 


Drake’s Raid on the Spanish Main 127 

God lend me life and leave I mean to reap some of 
your harvest which you get out of the earth and send 
into Spain to trouble all the earth ! ” 

Away went the Spaniard and delivered his message, 
no doubt to the consternation of the Governor. 

In a couple of days Drake felt that it was time to 
go to the Isle of Pines, where he had left Rouse and his 
men. Arrived here, he told of his misadventures, and 
Rouse, growing disheartened, washed his hands of the 
whole affair and went home; which Drake didn’t really 
mind, for he preferred to work on his own, and was by 
no means despondent. He decided that he would tackle 
Carthagena, the chief town on the Spanish Main, which, 
if he could surprise it, would amply repay him for his 
voyage. 

The Governor of Nombre de Dios, however, had 
taken the precaution of warning Carthagena of the 
proximity of the Dragon, as they called Drake now, 
so that when the English appeared off Carthagena they 
were met by shots from the town, which told Drake that 
his surprise attack would not come off. He knew, too, 
that the town was too strong to attempt to assault it 
openly, so he contented himself with seizing a number 
of ships lying at anchor in the harbour — right under 
the noses of the Spanish guns. 

Then he sailed from Carthagena, deciding to lie 
low awhile in the Gulf of Darien till the excitement had 
subsided, when he would sally forth again. One thing 
worried him : he hadn’t sufficient men to man the ships 
and the pinnaces. He resolved to get over the difficulty 
by sinking one ship — the Swan — commanded by his 
brother John. He had to do this secretly, for he knew 
that his men would never consent to her being sunk. 
So, taking old Tom Moore, his carpenter, into his 
confidence, he succeeded in overcoming his qualms and 


128 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

arranging for him to bore holes in the ship’s bottom; 
and in due course the Swan began to fill and to settle 
down. Drake, passing by in one of his pinnaces, asked 
John what was the matter with his ship; had she 
sprung a leak? Instantly it was “All hands to the 
pumps ! ” But pumped they never so quickly the water 
gained, and soon the men had to abandon the ship, 
which presently plunged beneath the surface ; and Drake 
had achieved his purpose. 

Then away to the Gulf of Darien, where they rested 
and amused themselves at various good old English 
games. Here Drake learnt from a negro he had with 
him, one Diego, that the Cimaroons, who hated the 
Spaniards like poison, would no doubt be willing to join 
forces with him against them ; and Drake sent his brother 
John to the mainland to negotiate with the Cimaroons. 
The mission was successful, and John returned to report 
that the Cimaroons, eager to take their vengeance on 
the Spaniards for all the evil they had wrought, would 
be willing to co-operate with the English, and would 
lead them anywhere they liked. Drake, following the 
counsel of the Cimaroons, decided to postpone operations 
until the rainy season was over. Now, as the waiting 
period had to be filled in somehow, or his men would 
grow weary of waiting, Drake, knowing that inactivity 
is the worst thing for sailors and soldiers, determined 
to be up and doing on the sea. So, moving to a safer 
harbour, he made that his headquarters, leaving there 
a number of men under command of John. With the 
remainder he set out in a couple of pinnaces to see 
what was to be picked up along the coast. First he 
dashed into Carthagena harbour, and cut out two 
frigates from under the muzzles of the guns; later, when 
the Spaniards grew weary of being at the mercy of the 
Dragon, and sent out two big ships to take him, Drake 


Drake’s Raid on the Spanish Main 129 

met them, and though they were well armed and well 
manned he sent them scurrying back to their harbour. 
One of his two prizes he sent to the bottom, and the 
other he burnt; and then, wanting to feel terra firma 
beneath his feet, pulled to the shore. Something told 
him that the Spaniards had prepared an ambush for 
him; but Drake determined to land, and, springing 
ashore, he defied the hidden Spaniards to do their 
worst ! And instead of doing that they bolted ! 

Meanwhile, John Drake had been busy. He did 
not want to be out of all the fun, so one day, espying 
a Spanish ship, he put off in a pinnace, taking only 
one man with him, and tried to capture her. The 
result was a foregone conclusion — both the intrepid and 
foolhardy Englishmen were killed. John was never 
so lucky as Francis ! 

Thus it came about that when Drake returned to 
his head-quarters to give his men a rest he found his 
brother gone, and suffered an agony of spirit, for the 
hardy mariner had loved his brave brother. Still, what 
is done cannot be undone, and the Englishmen had to 
resign themselves to fate. The hot weather having 
now set in, they had other troubles to think about; 
fever had laid its fell grip upon them, and took a heavy 
toll during the time of rest. Then came the Cimaroons 
with news of the Spanish fleet. This heralded the 
dispatch of the treasure from Panama across the Isthmus 
of Darien — a journey which up till then had been un- 
attended by danger from a European foe, although now 
and again, no doubt, the Cimaroons had sought to get 
a blow in at the Spaniards. 

Drake now intended to give the Dons a shock; he 
meant to march inland and waylay the treasure mule- 
train. He had only eighteen of his men who were fit 
to travel, but he picked out thirty Cimaroons and Pedro 

j 


130 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

to go with him. Pedro, by the way, had whetted the 
curiosity of Drake by telling him of a great sea far 
away beyond the hills, and the adventurer told himself 
that this must be the wonderful South Sea of which the 
men of the past had spoken. He decided to have' a 
look at it, with a view to future exploring. 

So off across the isthmus went the little band of 
black men and white — strange companions, who had at 
least one bond of sympathy, namely, hatred of the 
Spaniards. The Cimaroons knew the way, and led by 
the most favourable route — through forests and over 
hills and across rivers. On every side were new and 
strange sights to the Englishmen, who marched by day, 
and slept by night in branch-houses built by the 
Cimaroons to shelter them from the mists w^hich bring 
fever. 

After a fairly uneventful journey, the company 
arrived at the other side of the isthmus, and found 
before them a high mountain, up which they toiled, to 
see, as Pedro had told them, the great sea. The summit 
being reached, they saw that on a tree-trunk the 
Cimaroons had cut steps, and in its branches had 
erected a platform. Drake clambered up to this, and 
stood there facing the sea — the mighty Pacific rolling 
before him, the great Atlantic spread out behind him. 
He had come within sight of the South Sea — the first 
Englishman to do so. 

A moment’s silence. The sight seemed too much 
for the adventurer; then, bursting out a vow that he 
would be the first Englishman to sail its waters, he 
cried : 

“But one thing do I ask of Heaven, and that to sail 
once in an English ship in that sea ! ” 

Then, having feasted his eyes upon the scene before 
him, he called up his company, and there, one by one. 


Drake’s Raid on the Spanish Main 131 

the English sailors registered their yows to follow 
him wherever he went, and when. 

But there was no time to dally. Pressing work must 
be attended to; the future must be left to itself. So 
away towards Panama City Drake and his men went, 
cutting their way through the forest and keeping a 
good look-out lest they be surprised by Spaniards. 
However, they escaped notice, and after two days’ hard 
work came to open country, and before them lay 
Panama, the city of gold and silver; and away in the 
harbour rode the treasure fleet, waiting to disgorge its 
rich cargoes. 

The day was still young when they came within 
sight of their objective, and, knowing that they must 
not be seen yet, Drake kept his men under cover until 
night, meanwhile sending a Cimaroon to spy out the 
land and to discover when the treasure-train would set 
out on its journey to Nombre de Dios. 

Anxiously the adventurers waited, longing to get to 
business, wondering whether it might happen that they 
would have to wait hidden very long. But presently 
the spy came back with news that cheered, and made 
them feel that they had the treasure in their hands 
already I That very night the treasure-train was to set 
out for Nombre de Dios — a train of fifty mules, heavy 
laden, to be followed the next night by two other trains 
of like size. How those Englishmen’s fingers itched! 

But they knew there would be stern work before 
them ere their hands laid hold on the treasure, and, 
wasting no time on anticipatory visions, they marched 
forward through the darkness till they came to the junc- 
tion of the Nombre de Dios and Panama roads. Here 
Drake disposed his forces carefully, dividing them into 
two companies of eight Englishmen and fifteen 
Cimaroons — a company on each side of the road, under 


132 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

command of Drake and John Oxenham respectively. 
The companies were posted, not exactly opposite each 
other, but in such positions that one could seize the 
hindmost mules and the other the foremost, and so get 
the Spaniards between two fires. 

There followed an anxious time of waiting, during 
which a man dared hardly breathe, let alone speak. 
Then through the night air came the cheery tinkling of 
bells, and they knew that the train was approaching. 
The only thing that worried them was that the tinkling 
came from two ways — from Venta Cruz and from 
Panama. They knew that the treasure-train would not 
come from Venta Cruz; but the question was which 
would get there first ? 

They needn’t have worried; the whole matter was 
settled for them ! One of Drake’s men had been drink- 
ing too much, and the neat brandy had got into his 
head; so that when he heard the bells he got muddled 
and lost his sense of locality. When the bells from 
Venta Cruz drew nearer he thought they were the bells 
from Panama. Now, the former heralded only the 
approach of a single Spanish officer, who would have 
been allowed to proceed without molestation had not 
the drunken sailor raised himself up from the long grass 
to hurl himself at the Spaniard. Quick as lightning 
a Cimaroon hauled him back. But too late ; the officer 
had seen the white shirt which the man wore — as did 
his comrades, for identification — and, suspicious that 
there should be anyone lying in wait at such a spot, 
and at such a time, he urged his mule on towards 
Panama at top speed, expecting to be followed. 

But none followed him; for Drake’s orders were to 
lie low, even now. 

On, therefore, went the officer, to meet the treasure- 
train, which was in charge of the Treasurer of Lima, 


Drake’s Raid on the Spanish Main 133 

who was naturally pretty startled to see the galloping 
figure. 

“A miracle has happened I ” cried the officer. “El 
Dragon has come — though how, Heaven only knows — 
and he lies in wait for the treasure ! ” 

Now, the Treasurer of Lima, like most of his com- 
patriots, had a wholesome dread of Drake, and 
though it passed his comprehension that such a thing 
should have taken place, yet he considered it wise to 
adopt precautionary measures, lest there should be any 
truth in the scared officer’s apparently wild tale. 

So, keeping back the actual treasure-train, he sent 
on a line of mules, two of them with loads of silver, the 
rest with provisions, just to act as a decoy; and Drake, 
having kept his men quiet, and hearing the tinkling 
of the bells as before, imagined that everything was 
going quite smoothly, and that after all the Spanish 
officer had not seen the drunken sailor. 

The mule-train came to the ambush; there rang 
a shrill whistle-call, and the Englishmen and the 
Cimaroons leapt to their feet, fell upon the Spaniards, 
seized the mules, and began to rifle their packs, expect- 
ing to find a rich haul of treasure. 

And all they found were the two loads of silver 
and an assortment of victuals I 

However, there it was ; and the important thing was 
to square things up somehow, and to get back to the 
coast before the Spaniards could stop them. The way 
back lay through Venta Cruz. It was the easier way, 
and Drake vowed he’d go by that road, even though it 
meant fighting his way through. He must hurry on 
before the men of Panama had time to warn Venta Cruz. 
The Cimaroons pledged themselves to follow him 
through thick and thin, and with this assurance Drake 
immediately set out. 


134 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

The Cimaroons went on in front as scouts, and 
presently reported that they had located the presence of 
Spanish troops by the smell of the gun-matches. Where- 
upon Drake got ready to fight, thinking he might have to 
cut his way through. On they went, silently, carefully; 
but soon the Spaniards saw them, and they were 
challenged. 

“Who goes there?” they cried. 

“ Englishmen ! ” came back the bold, proud, stagger- 
ing answer that wellnigh sent the Spaniards fleeing for 
their lives. 

“In the name of the King of Spain, yield! ” cried 
the captain of the troop. 

“Never!” bellowed Drake. “For the honour of 
the Queen of England, I must have passage this way,” 
and discharged his pistol full at the captain. Then, 
with good Queen Bess’s name on their lips, the 
English opened fire upon the Spaniards, who responded 
promptly, with fatal effect to one Englishman and 
wounds to others, including Drake himself. Still the 
little band kept up their fire, and presently the Spanish 
fire slackened somewhat, and Drake’s whistle sounded 
the “Charge ! ” There was a sharp volley of English 
shot, a flight of Cimaroon arrows, and then “St. George 
and England!” yelled the English, “Yo peho, yo 
peho ! ” cried the Cimaroons, and away they went at 
the Spaniards, scattering them, sending them helter- 
skelter into Venta Cruz, whither the foe followed them 
— into the heart of the city ! 

And that little mixed band captured Venta Cruz, and 
ransacked it ! But for all their roughness and eagerness 
for treasure, the English behaved, as Englishmen always 
do — courteously; and neither women nor children nor 
unarmed men had aught to say against them for their 
treatment. 



For the honour of the Queen of England, I must have passage this way ! ’ cried Drake, and discharged 

his pistol” {see page 134) 





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Drake’s Raid on the Spanish Main 135 

Staying only long enough to take what treasure they 
could find, Drake and his men pushed on from Venta 
Cruz towards the coast, which they reached in due 
course, to find the sick men well, though it was but 
natural they were all downcast at the failure of the 
journey to Panama. 

Shortly afterwards, Drake joined hands with a French 
privateer, and proceeded to make other plans for captur- 
ing some of the treasure from the South. He knew 
that by this time the Spanish Main would be up in 
arms and watchful against him ; but he had come a 
long way, and felt he ought to be paid for his trouble. 

Oxenham was sent with a pinnace to cut out a 
provision ship; which he did, capturing a fine frigate 
laden with sufficient food to serve their purpose. Drake 
himself went along the coast towards Veragua, stopping 
a frigate on the way, relieving her of some of her 
treasure, and gathering from the captain — probably 
under pressure — that in the harbour at Veragua there 
rode a Spanish ship with over a million of gold in her 
hold. This was fine news indeed, and off to Veragua 
hastened Drake, staying for nothing. 

The pinnace shot into the harbour — and received 
a broadside from the Spaniards, who were warned of 
their coming ! Back went Drake. Clearly, his luck 
was out ! 

But he would have one more try. He discovered 
that a treasure-train was due at Nombre de Dios from 
Venta Cruz, and he made up his mind to make an attempt 
to intercept this near Nombre de Dios. Putting back to 
his harbour, he boarded his little fleet, consisting of the 
French privateer and a couple of frigates captured from 
the Spaniards. The Pacha, his own ship, was un- 
seaworthy by this time, and he left her “to the 
Spaniards” as something in return for those he had 


136 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

captured ! Sailing along the coast for another harbour, 
he left his vessels there, and embarked in his pinnaces 
with fifteen Englishmen, twenty Frenchmen, and a 
number of Cimaroons. On March 31 he landed the 
majority of his forces at a river near Nombre de Dios, 
leaving the remainder to watch the pinnaces. 

Striking inland, the mixed band came within easy 
distance of Nombre de Dios, and took up positions 
along the road, waiting for the coming of the treasure- 
train as they had waited before. Across the still night 
air came the sounds of carpenters hard at work re- 
pairing the ships which awaited the treasure for King 
Philip; and then, just at the break of day, there came 
the tinkle of bells — the sweetest of music to the adven- 
turers’ ears ! 

They could hardly believe their eyes; coming to- 
wards them were 190 mules, heavily laden, as the 
Cimaroons had told them, with gold and silver — so 
much that they wouldn’t know what to do with it ! 
Thirty tons of silver and gold awaited the taking — 
when they had disposed of the guard of forty-five 
Spanish soldiers. 

Drake’s whistle rang shrilly again, and on the 
instant the raiders were amongst the Spaniards, who, 
fighting bravely, kept their attackers busy for a while. 
But the allies were not to be daunted, and presently 
the Spaniards, thinking discretion the better part of 
valour, took to their heels and ran. 

Letting them go, Drake and his men fell upon 
the mule-trains and, tearing open the packs, found that 
this time the lines had fallen in good places for them. 
There was so much treasure, they could not carry it all I 
They, therefore, hurriedly hid about fifteen tons of it 
in the burrows of land crabs, in the bottom of a shallow 
river, under trees — anywhere they could think of ; and, 


Drake’s Raid on the Spanish Main 137 

every man carrying as much as he could bear of gold, 
they started for the coast. 

Meanwhile, the scared Spaniards had given the alarm 
in Nombre de Dios, and while the raiders hurried off 
with the loads, troops were sent out after them. Coming 
up with the deserted and rifled treasure-train, they re- 
joiced to find some of the mules still laden, and these 
they sent into the city while they looked about them, 
knowing that the Englishmen could not have taken 
all the rest away. They discovered many of the hiding- 
places, and seeing that they had succeeded in locating 
the major portion of the treasure, they contented them- 
selves with gathering it up (employing 2,000 Mamoras 
and negroes to do this), and sending it post-haste to 
Nombre de Dios, preferring not to go after the bold 
raiders. 

Drake, meantime, was hastening to the coast, where 
he expected, naturally, to find his pinnaces. But when, 
elated at their success, his men came within sight of the 
coast, their pinnaces were no longer there, and in their 
places were seven Spanish pinnaces ! 

More hard luck ! Here he was, with the first good 
haul he had made, and yet unable to get away with 
it. He told himself — and his men — that come what 
might he was going to get to his frigates somehow. 
Fortunately for the boaster, the Spanish pinnaces, un- 
aware of the presence of the raiders so near at hand, 
weighed anchor and set out for Nombre de Dios. But 
the question that f^ced Drake was how to get away? 
No pinnaces I He solved the problem by building a 
raft at once, rigging up a sail out of an old biscuit sack, 
and calling for three volunteers to go with him to find 
the pinnaces. 

Everyone volunteered, but he took the three he 
wanted, and then set out on his crazy craft. At times it 


138 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

threatened to capsize, at others it had them waist deep 
in the water; and at all times while they sailed the 
blazing sun poured down upon them. At last they 
saw the pinnaces they had lost; but the men in the 
boats did not see them, and they were too far off for a 
hail to reach them. The pinnaces were lost sight of as 
they rounded a headland, and Drake, taking the risk, 
beached his raft and tore along the shore, in the hope 
of finding the boats run up on the beach. 

Sure enough, when the four racing men turned the 
headland they saw the pinnaces lying ashore, and, in- 
cidentally, gave the sailors a scare, for they thought that 
this sudden appearance betokened the failure and pur- 
suit of Drake. Drake, feeling it too good a joke to miss, 
let them believe this for a time, and enjoyed the 
crestfallen look on their faces. Then, with a shout, 
he told them all, and away went the pinnaces to bring 
back the treasure and the men left behind. 

In a little while all were on board the ships, jubilant 
at their success, though three Frenchmen were missing. 
Drake sent a party ashore to search for these, and to 
bring back the treasure that had been hidden. Only 
one Frenchman was found, and none of the silver, 
which, as we have seen, had been unearthed by the 
Spaniards. 

Drake was angry at the loss, but taking comfort that 
he had really managed to get a good haul, decided that 
it was time to return to England. First of all he laid 
in a stock of food by capturing a provision ship as 
they sailed tauntingly by Carthagena. Then, with 
hearty farewells to Pedro and his Cimaroons, whom 
they allowed to take whatever they wanted out of the 
ships, Drake and his merry men set sail for England, 
where they arrived on Sunday, August 19th, 1573, and 
were received with great joy by the people, who, forget- 


Drake’s Raid on the Spanish Main 139 

ting all about the preacher, rushed out of church to 
welcome the coming of the man who by this time had 
grown to be one of their idols. 

Queen Elizabeth, however, gave him a dubious wel- 
come — that is, publicly — for she ^as just then desirous 
of being at peace with Spain ; though it is by no means 
certain that she was not as delighted as Drake at the 
success of his voyage, which had gained him much 
wealth and a fine reputation as a leader of men. 


A GALLANT FISHERMAN 

A Brave Rescue in a Storm 

C APTAIN ALBERT GEMPTON, of Brixham, 
ranks amongst those men who have helped to 
make England the mistress of the seas, being a gallant 
hero with a whole host of brave deeds to his credit. 
A fisherman — a son of Devon, which has produced so 
many hardy sons of the sea — probably one of the most 
arduous pieces of work he ever undertook was when he 
went to the rescue of two lads on a fishing smack off 
Lundy Island on December i6, 1910. Incidentally, it 
shows the kind of thing that very often befalls the fisher- 
man, who, going out to reap the harvests of the seas, 
encounters untold dangers, while we at home go to our 
breakfast tables, and all unthinking eat the fish to catch 
which may have cost a man his life. 

On this particular day there had been a severe storm, 
which swept along the coast and caught many fishing 
vessels at their work, a good number of them being 
wrecked and all hands lost. The smack Friendship was 
off Lundy Island when the storm broke out, and for a 
time bravely battled against it; she held two men and 
two apprentices, and these gallantly worked her, seek- 
ing to get into port. But Fate was unkind; first the 
skipper was taken bodily by the angry waves and carried 
overboard, and was not seen again. Then, almost im- 
mediately afterwards the other man suffered a like fate ; 
and the two apprentices, mere lads learning the trade 
140 


A Gallant Fisherman 141 

of the sea, found themselves alone on a smack they 
knew not how to manage. 

To make matters worse, it was night; and for hours 
the two boys struggled gamely with their vessel, fight- 
ing the elements as best they knew how. The great 
waves reared white-crested heads, swooped down upon 
the smack, filling it with water; now she was on the 
crest of a terrific wave, now in the trough, and the boys 
thought that each moment would be their last. Their 
one hope was to keep the water under, and for hours 
and hours they worked hard at the pumps; but as fast 
as they pumped the water out more swept in, and they 
gave themselves up for lost. One, two, three o’clock 
came and passed, and still they were fighting for life, 
and with little hope of coming through. Then their 
hearts gave a bound; they wiped the water from their 
bleared eyes and looked across the waste of sea, scarcely 
believing what they saw. A light ! 

Forgetting the necessity for working the pumps with- 
out cessation, they rushed to the side and yelled them- 
selves hoarse, seeking to attract the attention of the 
men on the boat they knew was there. Above the roar 
of the storm their voices were soundless; they might 
have yelled till Doomsday and never been heard. But 
those men on the other vessel had seen — which was just 
as good — and with sail set she rode before the wind, 
drove her way through the water, and made for the 
derelict. It was hard going, but Captain Gempton knew 
that his little smack, the Gratitude, was a sturdy sailer ; 
and he realised that something was amiss. 

After a stern struggle the Gratitude came near 
enough to the Friendship to bawl out for information; 
and the two boys yelled out the story of their plight. 

“Save us!” they cried. “Save us! We’re alone, 
and the water’s gaining on us ! ” 


142 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

“Righto, sonnies ! cried Gempton. “Keep pump- 
ing. We’ll have you off in a twinkling ! ” 

They were brave words, but Gempton knew that a 
“twinkling” was a comparative term. It would be no 
light task to get alongside the Friendship without smash- 
ing into her, bobbing up and down as she was to the 
will of the waves. He manoeuvred his vessel carefully 
to get her into the best position from which to try to 
effect the rescue, knowing that it would be asking the 
boys to jump to death to leap out and try to swim to 
the Gratitude, If they were to be got off, they must be 
fetched ; and he knew it. 

But try as he would, the Gratitude could not be got 
within distance from which the boys could be saved. 
There was only one way to do it ; and that was to lower 
a boat and row over to the smack. 

“I’m going, boys!” said Gempton presently. 
“ Lower away ! ” 

And his men hoisted the boat. Gempton, swathed 
in his oilskins, took his seat in it; and at the same time 
another man, John Tidmarsh, jumped in with him. 

“I’m coming too, skipper,” he said. 

“Good,” said the captain; and the two men took 
their seats, each of them carrying a lifebuoy. Then, 
pushing off, they bent their backs to the oars, and 
sought to pull the boat over the waves. What a tussle 
that was ! What a fight against the elements ! The 
wind caught them and hurled them forward ; the waves 
broke upon them and hurled them backwards. Huge 
mountains of water fell upon them, swamping the boat, 
almost filling it; and while one man rowed the other 
bailed. Then on again — only to meet the same fate; 
bail again, and then onward through the darkness and 
the noise of Nature till eventually they came near to the 
Friendship, 


A Gallant Fisherman 143 

Then was careful handling called for, lest the boat 
be dashed into the side of the smack and broken to 
pieces. 

“Easy ! “ cried Gempton; and Tidmarsh grasped his 
oars, plied them masterfully, and just as it seemed that 
the boat was going to be smashed, she swung round 
and missed the Friendship by the fraction of a yard. 
And meanwhile the two boys were pumping for very 
life, straining eyes through the darkness to catch a 
glimpse of the heroes making for them. 

“They’ll never do it,” said one of them. 

“ God grant they do ! ” said the other. “ See — they’re 
here ! ” 

Sure enough, Gempton had brought his boat along- 
side, where she lay rocking at the mercy of the waves, 
but held in check by the firm hands on the oars. 

“Quick!” bawled Gempton. “Quick, for your 
lives ! ” And instantly the two boys forsook their 
pumps and rushed to the side, ready to jump overboard 
at the word 

“Jump ! ” “No ! ” The two words seemed to come 
simultaneously. Gempton had given the first, Tidmarsh 
the second, as the boat swung away from the smack. 
Then, with a mighty tug at the oars the boat was 
brought back again. “Jump ! ” And this time a boy 
jumped, landing in the boat, and sending it pitching 
and tossing, and threatening to overturn it. Again she 
swung out, only to be pulled back ; and once more a boy 
jumped, and landed fairly in her. 

They were saved ! Not yet. The journey to the 
Gratitude had still to be made, and now the wind was 
against them, blowing down upon them in greater fury, 
as though angry at being robbed of the prey it had 
fought for all through the hours of the howling night. 
It had seemed hours getting out to the Friendship ; it 


144 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

seemed years getting back. Time and time again the 
water broke in upon them, and filled the boat so that 
she could not easily ride the storm ; the boys bailed like 
madmen, and kept on bailing, and the two men held on 
at their oars and rowed in the race against death. 

They reached the Gratitude, where, with the waves 
breaking upon them, and the wind battering at them, 
the little company of four climbed perilously into the 
ship — exhausted all of them, grateful two of them, and 
well pleased the other two for having been able to effect 
the rescue. 


FIRE AT SEA 

Tragic Tales of Burning Ships 

I T is almost impossible to imagine anything more 
appalling than a fire at sea. The floating home 
of perhaps scores, maybe hundreds, of people blazing 
away, iron and steel melting in the fierce heat, explo- 
sions taking place here, there and everywhere; men 
trapped in cabins and being roasted to death; heroic 
sailors fighting the flames which there is no fire brigade 
to fight for them — all these things go to make up a 
scene of horror that beggars description. 

Such were the circumstances on December 8, 1914, 
when the oil-tank steamer Vedra took fire off Walney 
Island. She had left Sabine, in Texas, some while 
before, and run the gauntlet of the few German com- 
merce raiders in the Atlantic; and Captain Brewster 
was telling himself, when he arrived off Barrow on 
December 7, that his voyage was at an end, and that he 
would soon be able to unload his cargo of benzine. He 
counted his chickens before they were hatched, for 
Dame Fortune was bent on playing him a scurvy trick. 
For some time the weather had been rough, and the 
Vedra had been forcing her way through in the teeth 
of a gale which played shuttlecock with her. But the 
sturdy steamer had fought hard and long to get to 
her port; and now she was within sight. Across the 
darkening waters signals were sent for a pilot to come 
aboard and guide her into harbour. 

K 145 


146 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

Meanwhile, the storm increased in fury, and the 
Vedra found herself fighting against the titanic forces 
of the deep. Now on the crest of a wave, now in the 
trough the vessel lay, hovering at times, it seemed, on 
the very edge of the pit of destruction, and at others 
diving down, down, down, and then righting herself as 
by a miracle. 

The waiting men saw a tug put out and head towards 
their ship. 

“The pilot,” they muttered. “He’s in for a rough 
trip I ” 

A rough trip it was, and one that was never finished, 
for ere he could reach the Vedra the latter was taken 
up, as it were, by giant hands and flung shorewards; 
then swung about again and hurled towards Walney 
Island. Firm as a rock Captain Brewster stood to his 
post, and worked his ship like the mariner he was; 
but it was a hopeless task, and very soon there was 
a grinding that told she had run ashore. The engines 
were immediately reversed, and the ship strained to 
her utmost in the effort to get off the shore. As the 
waters poured over her she seemed to shake herself like 
a great dog. There was the hum of the engines below, 
the swish of the propeller as it churned up the water, 
but never a move backward did the Vedra make; rather, 
she bumped more heavily and got farther in. She was 
fast held. 

Captain Brewster, realising now that it was useless 
to try to float her by her own engines, signalled to the 
shore for assistance, and the guardship Furness, lying 
off the port, immediately put out and hurried to render 
what aid she could, while at the same time the tugs 
]Valney and Cartmel pushed their noses through the 
water' in her direction. Captain Hill, of the Furness, 
worked his vessel as near to the Vedra as was possible 


Fire at Sea 147 

with safety, and then, calling on the crew to stand by, 
hurled a hawser towards her. Time and time again 
the hawser was flung, only to fall short; but at last it 
was successfully thrown, and caught by some of the 
Vedra's crew. It took but a little while for them to 
hitch it securely; and when this was done the word 
was given to the Furness, whose engines were reversed, 
and away she bore till the hawser stretched taut from 
ship to ship. 

But the Furness found she had undertaken a task 
that defied all her strength, and, strain though she did 
with every ounce of steam in her and every horse- 
power in her engines, she could not make the Vedra 
budge from the fast hold in which she had been caught. 
Suddenly, too, there was a crack that sounded above 
the roar of the wind, and the Furness went staggering 
back as a child staggers when someone lets go of a 
rope he is straining at. The hawser had snapped in 
two. A sharp command, and the Furness eased up, 
and once more she steamed towards the Vedra; another 
hawser was hurled, and again, eventually, was hitched 
on. Then back she pulled, more carefully than ever 
this time, with the hawser tightening between the two 
vessels. Would it hold? Would the Vedra move? 
Would the Furness’s engines stand the strain ? Such 
were the questions that raced through many a mind in 
those anxious moments. On the Vedra, the captain 
still at his post, men waited tensely, holding on to 
anything at hand, lest they be pitched off into the 
boiling sea below, while the whole ship seemed to 
throb to the racing of her engines as they worked at 
high pressure. But she refused to move. 

Things were now assuming a very serious aspect, 
though the coming of the two tug boats at this time, 
under command of Commander Bisset, R.N., Harbour- 


148 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

master of Barrow, heartened the captain and crew, who 
refused to heed exhortations thrown at them to leave 
the vessel. 

“No!” bawled the captain through his funnelled 
hands. “I’ll not leave her till there’s no hope. I think 
we can refloat her ! ” 

So, as the men would stick to their duty, there was 
nothing to do but to strive the utmost to get the ship 
off, and the tugs and the guardship worked nobly with 
this end in view; but all unavailingly. And while they 
worked the news had been signalled along the coast, 
and the lifeboats at Piel and Fleetwood put out to 
succour the stranded mariners. Just as the Piel boat 
reached the spot, however, a great calamity had come 
to pass. 

The buffeting of the wind and sea bumped the 
Vedra heavily at every blow. The straining of her 
engines had begun to tell ; the engines soon gave up 
the fight and refused to work any more; and the vessel 
lay a helpless hulk, at the mercy of the elements — wind 
and water, which were soon to be reinforced by a third 
— fire ! While the firemen below had been working 
like niggers to keep their engines going, other men 
had been busy at the pumps, pumping the oil out of 
the tanks in order to lighten the ship and give her a 
better chance of life. But pumped they never so 
feverishly, never so lustily, they could not work fast 
enough; they were fighting against Nature, which, 
red in tooth and claw, delights to show man that, 
despite his ingenuity, he is but puny. 

Just as the engines gave up, the copper oil tank 
gave way, and instantly the oil began to run out. 
Now, it has always been a problem with oihships, this 
bursting of the tanks when the vessel goes ashore — a 
problem with a very serious point in it, and that is that 


Fire at Sea i49 

the oil is then almost certain to run into the engine- 
room. It did so in this case; while the men at the 
pumps were sweating with their exertions, the oil was 
running quickly towards the engine-room. There was 
no stopping it, and very soon it reached the engines. 
There was a burst of flame, followed by a terrific 
explosion. 

Horror-stricken, the men in the ships lying around 
looked across the troubled waters at the now flaming 
vessel. They knew only too well what had happened, 
and how utterly helpless everything was ; but they 
steamed forward as closely as they dared, and in the 
brilliant light could see men standing about the rails 
of the vessel with agony-drawn faces and already 
scorched clothes. 

The men on the Vedra? Down in the engine-room 
there were only things that once were men; trapped 
in that inferno, every man of them had been burned 
to death. Some, standing on deck, had rushed, as 
many as possible, to the weather side of the ship, where, 
as the flames were blown away from them, they stood 
a better chance of escape. Here they clung, maddened 
with fear, waving a jersey to attract attention — as if 
any attraction were needed ! The light from the blazing 
ship showed clearly and distinctly to the watchers the 
whole tragic scene. Others, who were in the fo’c’sle, 
were caught in a trap, and the would-be rescuers could 
see them at the portholes, frantically calling for the help 
that could not be given them. 

All around the ship the sea was a blazing mass, 
for the oil which had been pumped overboard had 
caught fire. The two lifeboats sped through the sea 
towards the flaming ship, but were driven back by the 
intense heat. Ever and anon there were reports as of 
great guns — with a roar the oil tanks exploded, and 


i5o The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

added to the volume of flame which enveloped the 
hapless ship and men. Then lesser reports; the steel 
plates of the vessel were being blown out. 

“No hope — no hope!” cried the entrapped men; 
and then, driven mad by despair, determined to take all 
risks. Some of them flung themselves overboard into 
the flaming cauldron. They were never seen again. 

Then there took place one of those deeds of heroism 
which will never die while men have lips to tell of 
courage and endurance. The chief engineer was 
seen by those on the tugs to be standing on the poop 
with three other men ; hurriedly they saw him give his 
comrades a lifebuoy each. They expected to see him 
don one himself, but, looking again, realised that he had 
not one left. In the brilliant light they could see him 
urging his comrades to jump; could see them reluctant 
to leave him; but, pressed by the brave man, at last 
they leapt clear of the ship — into the sea of fire on which 
were floating several lifebuoys and belts thrown out by 
the tugs and lifeboats. They disappeared for a 
moment, then came to the surface again, and could be 
seen striking out towards the Furness, which, pushing 
as near as was possible, went to their rescue. By the 
greatest of good luck, after a fearful struggle for life 
against sea and fire, two men. Second Engineer 
McLoughlin and Fourth Engineer Dixon, were picked 
up,' sadly burnt, almost exhausted, but alive. The 
third man was not so fortunate, and was not seen again. 

Meanwhile, the chief engineer had himself jumped 
overboard, without any lifebuoy, and fought his way 
yard by yard through the sea of flame till he came 
within an arm’s length of the boat which had been put 
off to rescue him. As though angry at being robbed 
of the other men, the sea, seeming to gather in fury, 
at that moment picked up the engineer on a tremendous 



“ The funnels and ventilators were belching forth mighty columns 
of flame — every part of the ship was ablaze” {see page 15 1) 



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Fire at Gea 151 

wave and hurled him back into the inferno, then back 
against the death-ship, battering him to death. 

It was evident now that there was no hope for any 
other of the stricken crew. The funnels and ventilators 
were belching forth mighty columns of flame — every 
part of the ship was ablaze. Only one man was still 
visible on deck, and he was so scared that he could do 
nothing but cry agonisingly for help. 

“Jump ! ’’ they yelled to him. “Jump ! ” 

“I can’t swim ! ” was the tragic answer; and, fearing 
to trust himself to the treacherous sea, he remained 
where he was, to become the victim of a still more 
treacherous foe. 

So ended the tragedy of the Vedra, Although the 
tugs and lifeboats loitered about all night in the hope 
of finding some survivor, they were unsuccessful. 
Morning came. The ship was still burning furiously, 
great columns of flame and smoke ascending to such 
a height that they were visible at Fleetwood and Black- 
pool, twenty miles away. Her plates were red hot; 
all her tanks had long since exploded with terrific 
reports; and when night fell she was nothing but a 
shapeless skeleton, glowing in the sea, which itself was 
like a burning oil well. 

Out of a crew of thirty-six only two men were taken 
off, and that despite all the gallant efforts that were 
made. Even of these two only one lived, for a week 
later one of them died in hospital from burns and shock. 

The story of the burning of the Earl of Eldon, one 
of the finest trading vessels then afloat (it was on 
September 27, 1834, that the fire was discovered), is 
an instance of the spontaneous combustion of a cargo 
such as has often sent good ships to their doom. The 
Earl of Eldon left Bombay on August 24, carrying 


152 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

forty-five souls, including three ladies and a baby 
amongst her passengers. She was laden with cotton 
bales, screwed so tightly that when the time came to 
move them, in order to try to save the ship, it was 
found impossible to shift them sufficiently. Before the 
cotton was put aboard it had been allowed to get 
thoroughly wet through, but, knowing the danger of 
wet cotton in a ship’s hold, the owners had had it dried 
before shipment. Apparently the drying had not been 
thorough, because the only explanation of the fire on 
the Earl of Eldon is that, in just the same way that a 
haystack takes fire from the firedamp that generates 
inside it, so the cotton bales generated their own fire. 
As stated above, the first signs of anything wrong were 
discovered on September 27, when some of the pas- 
sengers noticed steam issuing from the fore-hatchway. 
Captain Theaker, however, assured them that it was 
only steam, which was a usual thing on cotton-loaded 
ships. Presently, however, the smoke became so dense 
that the passengers were really alarmed, and an officer 
of the Madras Artillery, who was on board as a pas- 
senger, was not at all surprised when Captain Theaker 
knocked at his door and informed him that part of the 
cotton was on fire, and that he wished all the gentlemen 
passengers to come on deck for consultation. The rest 
of the story cannot be better told than in the words of 
the Indian officer. 

“Being assembled,” he says, “the captain stated the 
case to be that some part of the cargo appeared to have 
spontaneously ignited, and he proposed removing the 
bales until they should discover the ignited ones, and 
have them thrown overboard, as also those which ap- 
peared to be in the same damaged condition. He said 
that there did not appear to be immediate danger, and 
that he hoped we might be able to avert it altogether. 


153 


Fire at Sea 

However, at eight o’clock the smoke became much 
thicker, and began to roll through the after-hatchway — 
the draught having been admitted forward in order to 
enable the men to work. Several bales were removed, 
but the heat began to be intolerable below; the smoke 
rolled out in suffocating volumes, and before nine 
o’clock we discovered that part of the deck had caught 
fire ; in short, the men were obliged to knock off work. 
The captain then ordered the hatches to be battened 
down, with a view to keep the fire from bursting out, 
and to hoist out all the boats and stock them in case 
of necessity. This was done, and about half-past one 
the three ladies, two sick passengers, an infant, and a 
female servant were put into the longboat, with two 
hundred and sixteen gallons of water, twenty gallons 
of brandy, and biscuits for a month’s consumption, 
together with such pots of jam and preserved meats as 
we could get at, and the day’s provision of fresh and 
salted meat. 

“It was now about two o’clock; the hatches were 
then opened, and all hands set to work to endeavour 
to extinguish the fire. The main hatch being lifted, 
and a tarpaulin removed, there was a sail underneath 
which was so hot that the men could hardly remove it; 
when they did, the heat and smoke came up worse than 
ever, and it being now known from inspection that the 
fire was underneath that part, orders were given to hoist 
out the bales until the inflamed ones could be got at; 
but when the men laid hold of the lashings to introduce 
a crane-hook, they were found to have been burned 
through beneath, and came away in their hands. 

“The case now appeared bad, indeed. However, 
we cut a bale open and tried to remove it by handfuls, 
but the smoke and heat became so overpowering that 
no man could stand over it, and water only seemed to 


154 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

have the effect of increasing it, in the quantities we 
dared to use, for had the captain ventured to pump 
water into the ship to extinguish the fire, the bales 
would have swelled so much as to burst open the deck, 
and have increased so much in weight as to sink the 
ship, so that either way destruction would have been 
the issue. Under these circumstances, perceiving the 
case to be utterly hopeless, the captain called us together 
on the poop, and asked if anyone could propose any 
expedient likely to avail in extinguishing the fire and 
saving the ship, as in that case ‘ we will stick by her 
while a hope remains.’ It was unanimously agreed that 
all had been done that could be done; the men were 
all perfectly sober, and had been indefatigable in their 
exertions, but one and all seemed coolly and positively 
of opinion that the case was hopeless. The heat w^as 
increasing so much that it became dangerous to leave 
the poop ; the captain therefore requested us to get into 
the boats, told off and embarked his men, and at three 
o’clock he himself left the ship, the last man, just as 
the flames were bursting through the quarter-deck. We 
then put off, the two boats towing the longboat. The 
ship’s way had been previously stopped by backing her 
yards. She was now in one blaze, and her masts began 
to fall in. The sight was grand, though awful. Be- 
tween eight and nine o’clock all her masts had fallen, 
and she had burned to the water’s edge. Suddenly there 
was a bright flash, followed by a dull, heavy explosion 
— her powder had caught. For a few seconds her 
splinters and flaming fragments were glittering in the 
air, and then all was darkness, and the waters had closed 
over the Earl of Eldon! 

“Sad was the prospect now before us ! There were 
in the longboat the captain and twenty-five persons, in- 
cluding an infant four months old ; the size of the boat 



“The ship was now in one blaze, and her masts began to fall in” (see page 154) 













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Fire at Sea 155 

23 feet long by feet broad. In each of the others 
ten individuals, including the officer in charge. One 
of the boats had some bags of biscuit, but the chief 
provision was in the longboat. We were, by rough 
calculation, above i,ooo miles from Rodrigue, and 450 
from Diego Garcias, the largest of the Chagos Islands; 
but to get there we must have passed through the 
squally latitudes we had just left, and been subject to 
variable winds and heavy weather or calms, neither of 
which we were prepared to resist. Seeing, then, that 
our stock was sufficient, we determined on trying for 
Rodrigue. About eleven o’clock we accomplished 
rigging the boats and were under sail. We carried 
a lantern lashed to our mast in the longboat to prevent 
the other boats from losing us during the night; and 
when day broke sent them sailing in all directions 
around to look out for ships. While the wind was light 
they could outsail us, but when it became strong, and 
the sea very high, the difference of speed was rather in 
our favour, as the weight and size of the longboat 
enabled her to lay hold of the water better. 

“On the third day of our boat navigation, the change 
of the moon approaching, the weather began to wear 
a threatening aspect; but as we were in the Trade, we 
did not apprehend foul or contrary winds. In the course 
of the night it blew fresh, with rain. We were totally 
without shelter, and the sea, dashing its spray over us, 
drenched us, and spoiled a great part of our biscuit, 
though we happily did not discover this until we were 
nearly out of the want of it. 

“In the course of the next day the weather grew 
w^orse, and one of our small boats, in which was Mr. 
Simpson, the second mate, with nine others, was split 
by the sea. She came alongside, and we put the car- 
penter into her, who made what repairs he could, but 


156 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

with little hope of their answering. We then proceeded 
to fasten a spray-cloth of canvas along our gunwale, 
having lashed a bamboo four feet up the mast, and 
fixed it on the intersection of two stanchions at the same 
height above the stern. The spray-cloth was firmly 
lashed along this, so as to form a kind of half-pent roof, 
and had it not been for this imperfect defence we must 
have been swamped; and we still shipped seas to so 
great an extent that four men were obliged to be kept 
constantly employed in bailing to keep her clear of water. 
Towards evening it blew hard with a tremendous sea, 
and, not thinking the other damaged boat safe, we took 
in her crew and abandoned her. We were now thirty-six 
persons, stowed as thick as we could hold, and obliged 
to throw over all superfluities. We had not more than 
eight inches of clear gunwale out of water ! 

“This night I shall never forget. Our situation was 
indeed awful. Wet, crushed, and miserable, the night 
passed away, and the day broke at last. A tremendous 
sea came roaring down, and I held in my breath with 
horror; it broke right over our stern, wetted the poor 
women to their throats, and carried away the steersman’s 
hat. The captain then cried out, in a tone calculated 
to inspire with confidence he afterwards told me his 
heart did not re-echo : 

“ ‘ That’s nothing ! It’s all right ! Bail away, my 
boys ! ’ 

“He never expected us to live out that night; but, 
harassed as he was in mind and body, he gallantly 
stood up, and never by word or deed betrayed a feeling 
that might tend to make us despair. He stood on the 
bench that livelong night, nor did he ever attempt to 
sleep for nearly forty-eight hours. 

“The morning broke and passed away, and, after 
the change of the moon, the weather began to moderate, 


Fire at Sea 157 

and we enjoyed a comparative degree of comfort. We 
had three small meals of biscuit and some jam, etc., and 
three half-pints of water per day, with brandy, if we 
liked it. The men had one gill of spirits allowed them 
daily. We had plenty of cigars, and whenever we could 
strike a light we had a smoke, and I never found tobacco 
so great a luxury. The ladies were most wretched, yet 
they never uttered a repining word. 

“On the thirteenth evening we began to look out 
for Rodrigue. The captain told us not to be too san- 
guine, as his chronometer was not to be depended upon 
after its late rough treatment. The night fell, and I 
went forward to sleep, and about twelve was awoke by 
the cry that land was right ahead. I looked and saw 
a strong loom of land through the mist. The captain 
had the boat brought to for an hour, then made sail 
and ran towards it, and at half-past two it appeared still 
more strongly. We then lay to until daylight. I at- 
tempted to compose myself to sleep, but my feelings 
were too strong, and after some useless attempts I sat 
down and smoked with a sensation I had long been a 
stranger to. With the first light of dawn, Rodrigue 
appeared right ahead, distant about six miles, and by 
eight o’clock we were all safely landed. A fisherman 
who came off to show us the way through the reefs 
received us in his house, and proceeded to feed us, and 
in tJie meantime sent to tell the gentlemen of the island 
of our arrival. Two of them came down immediately, 
and, having heard our story, said that we had been 
miraculously preserved. They then gave our bundles 
to their negroes, and took us to their houses, where 
everything they had was set before us — clean linen and 
a plentiful dinner. They shook us down four or five 
beds in an outhouse, and we enjoyed what we had not 
known for the last fortnight — a sound sleep.” 


ROMANCE OF TREASURE-TROVE 

These are True Stories of Treasure, and they are as Strange 
as Fiction 

I NTERWOVEN with the story of the sea there is 
a vast amount of romance that wraps itself around 
hidden treasure. Ever since the days when the pirates 
roamed the seas at their own sweet will and took toll 
of shipping, these tales of treasure have been told. 
Dotted about here and there are small islands where 
tradition has it that the pirates hid their hoards of 
gold, silver, and precious jewels, intending to come 
back for them at some future date; but, being caught 
and hauled to justice, they died with their secret un- 
revealed, and the treasure remained. Then someone 
was told — or perhaps imagined — that such-and-such an 
island held it, and expeditions would be fitted out to 
seek for the treasure, which, as time rolled on, grew 
in size and value till it assumed fabulous proportions. 

Of course, there are hidden treasures secreted by 
the old pirates, and there are, too, other hoards which 
it would be well worth while to salvage, if the exact 
places were known. One can go back as far as the 
reigns of Tiberius and Caligula and find mention of 
richly laden ships which foundered with all their trea- 
sure; two galleys, for instance, containing plate, gold, 
art treasures, and many jewels were lost in the Lake 
Nemi, and nothing has ever been recovered, although 

158 


Romance of Treasure-Trove 159 

the lake at this spot is only little more than a hundred 
feet deep. 

Coming to a much later date, the seventeenth cen- 
tury, there is an authentic record of the recovery of a 
vast quantity of lost treasure which was lost off 
Hispaniola, when a great Spanish galleon went down 
very many years before. A ship’s carpenter named 
John Phipps by some means became aware of this 
sunken treasure, and after some time prevailed upon 
the Duke of Albemarle to* fit out an expedition to 
recover it. That expedition lasted a year, and folks 
at home began to think that Phipps’s idea had been 
all moonshine, and that nothing had come of it. Then 
one day the one-time carpenter turned up with trea- 
sure worth ;^3oo,ooo. The story was romantic. Phipps 
had been searching about the sea round Hispaniola, 
for he had no sure idea as to exact locality, and perhaps 
he himself had a suspicion that his information had 
been incorrect, for he could find no trace of the wealth 
he sought. Then one day, when off Port de la Plata, 
looking over the side of the Periaga, a man “spied,” 
says the account written by a New England historian, 
“a feather growing, as he judged, out of a rock, where- 
upon one of their Indians (whom they had brought for 
the purpose) dived in, and, bringing up the feather, 
brought them withal a surprising story that he per- 
ceived a number of great guns in the watery world 
where he had found his feather, the report of which 
great guns exceedingly astonished the whole company, 
and at once turned their despondencies for their ill- 
success into assurances that they had now lit upon the 
true spot of ground which they had been looking for; 
and they were further confirmed in their assurances 
when, upon further diving, the Indian fetched up a 
‘ Sow, ’ as they styled it, or lump of silver, worth 


i6o The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

perhaps two or three hundred pounds. This news was 
communicated to Phipps. ‘Then,* said he, ‘thanks 
be to God, we are made * ; and so away they went, all 
hands to work. . . . Now, most happily, they fell upon 
that room in the wreck where the bullion had been 
stored up, and they so prospered in this ‘ new fishing ’ 
that in a little while they had, without the loss of any 
man’s life, brought up thirty 4 wo tons of silver! For it 
was now come to measuring silver by tons. Thus did 
there once again come into the light of the sun a 
treasure which had been half a hundred years groan- 
ing under the water. Besides that incredible treasure 
in plate of various forms thus fetched up from seven or 
eight fathoms under water, there were vast riches of 
gold and pearls and jewels.” 

Carpenter Phipps received a boisterous welcome in 
England when he returned, and was knighted, and in 
due course became Governor of Massachusetts. 

Sometimes seekers after treasure go forth on their 
quest and are never heard of again. In 1888, for in- 
stance, there left the Thames a little steamer called 
the Seabird, which was destined, so it was said, for 
coastal work in South America. Some three months 
later she was seen off Descada, and from that time to 
this has not been heard of. Plainly one of those 
mysteries of the sea referred to in another chapter; 
but a mystery with something behind it. The accepted 
explanation is that the owners had gone to seek treas- 
ure-trove buried by La Fitte, a French pirate, in the 
early days of the nineteenth century, on one of the 
Leeward Islands, either Marie Galanti or Descada, 
where the Seabird was sighted. There might be little in 
that to connect the Seabird with treasure-hunting, were 
it not for the fact that when she left the Thames she 
had two divers aboard, who were ranked on the books 


Romance of Treasure-Trove i6i 

as Steward and cook’s mate. Twelve months after 
the Seabird disappeared the mother of Rider, the 
“steward,” heard from her son, who sent her a draft 
on a San Francisco bank for ;£’ioo, and a letter saying 
that she would hear from him again, and that he and 
the “cook’s mate,” Cadman, had been “lucky.” He 
was as silent as the grave as to the fate of the Seabird; 
and neither he nor any of the crew has been heard of 
since. 

If the pirates were alive, and would only speak ! If 
Blackbeard, that picturesque scourge of the sea, could 
but reveal the place where he hid his treasure, unseen 
even by his own men, what a rush there would be I 
What a hoard might be found ! Though not perhaps 
so large a one as the tales that are told lead one to 
suppose. Poor old Captain Kidd’s hidden wealth, for 
instance, started with ;^‘300 — according to a man who 
sailed with him — and after the captain was hanged it 
grew and grew and grew until it was so large that not 
one, nor two, but dozens of places were necessary to 
hold it ! So do myths arise from the flimsiest of facts. 

During the sixteenth century, when English ships 
scoured the seas to wring wealth from Spain, many a 
Spanish ship was sunk, with all her treasure, rather 
than it should fall into the hands of the “English 
devils”; and when the Invincible Armada was put to 
flight, and, storm-tossed, sought to reach home by 
sailing round the north coast of Scotland and the west 
coast of Ireland, numbers of the vessels were wrecked; 
and, as they contained huge treasures, fortunes might 
be gained by properly organised search parties with the 
latest dredging and diving apparatus. 

Sometimes the romance of treasure-trove is over- 
clouded by tragedy; and very often for nothing. The 
story is told of the foundering of the American ship 

L 


i 62 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

Reliance, Captain Harding and his crew of twelve men 
barely escaping with their lives in the boats. Then 
a storm broke upon them and separated the boats, and 
Hiram Manly, mate, and nine men found themselves 
alone on the watery waste, being buffeted about, in 
danger every minute of being swamped. They worked 
desperately to keep her afloat, happy to be so far safe. 
Then one man was washed overboard by a huge 
wave, another fell dead from his exertions, and the 
survivors, day after day under pitiless sun, and night 
after night, held on their way, economising the 
few provisions and little water they had, becoming 
delirious aa the anxiety told on them. Two more 
men were lost one night — perhaps the madness seized 
them, and they flung themselves overboard to end it 
all; perhaps a wave took them. But, whatever it was, 
they disappeared without a sound. The survivors, after 
what seemed an eternity of suffering, were at last flung 
upon a coral island, where they found water, which, 
because of the uncontrolled thirst upon them, killed two 
of them. Then fish was found; Hiram built a fire from 
drift wood, lighted it by the crystal glass of a watch 
and the sun’s rays, and then went to rouse his sleeping 
comrades. One man was dead. 

Then the three castaways fell to eating their first 
good meal for many a day, and afterwards set out to 
explore the island. Manly going in one direction and 
the other two — Dillon and Harper — in another. They 
found no sign of human beings, and presently Dillon 
and Manly met. 

“Where’s Harper?” asked Manly. 

“We’ll never see him again,” was the reply. “He’s 
dead.” 

“Dead!” cried Manly. “Where did it happen, 
and how ? ” 


Romance of Treasure-Trove 163 

“Sharks!” said Dillon. “He went to bathe, and 
— and they got him ! ” 

“ Did the body come ashore ? ” Manly asked, filled 
with horror, and wondering when his own turn would 
come. “Let’s go and see ! ” 

“No!” exclaimed Dillon. “It’s no use. We 
should never find him ! ” 

But Manly persisted, and ran off in the direction 
from which Dillon had come; and in half an hour came 
upon the body of Harper, with a knife wound in his 
chest ! 

Instantly Manly’s thought flew to the agitation of 
Dillon when he suggested seeking the body, and he 
knew that there had been treachery. But why? Why 
should Dillon kill Harper, a man with nothing of value 
on him ? Not even his clothes were worth having, torn 
and ragged as they were. 

Manly raised himself from beside the dead man, 
turned, and, turning, saw Dillon creeping towards him 
with an open knife in his hand. Weaponless, Manly 
for a moment was filled with terror; then, catching up 
a handful of sand, he flung it into the murderer’s eyes, 
blinding him for the minute. Then, with a bound. 
Manly was upon him, clutching him by the throat and 
wrestling for the knife. For a long time the two men 
fought, biting, scratching, Dillon seeking to use his 
knife. Manly trying to seize it; but at last, with a sharp 
twist. Manly sent the murderer headlong to the ground, 
and the next instant was upon him, and, joy ! he had 
the knife. 

Again they fought. . . . And Dillon met the fate 
of the man he had killed. 

Panting from his exertions. Manly sat on the sand 
beside the dead man, and his bleared eyes looked out 
to sea. He leapt to his feet, weariness all gone, all 


164 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

thought of the tragedy forgotten; he waved his hands 
frenziedly, yelled hysterically : 

“A sail! A sail!” 

Away out there was a ship. 

Tearing his shirt from his back, Manly rushed to 
the water’s edge and waved it long and feverishly, 
waved it till there came from the ship the boom of 
a gun, that told him he had been seen. And then 
reaction set in; he dropped senseless to the earth. 

They found him thus; found Dillon, too, lying 
dead, and knew that some tragedy had been enacted 
on the silent, lonely strand. When Manly came round 
he blurted out his story, telling all. 

“ But why should he have killed Harper ? ” said 
the officer who had come ashore with the boat party. 

“It fails me,” said Manly. 

The next moment the pair were startled as a seaman 
rushed towards them with a cry upon his lips. He 
placed something in the officer’s hand. They were two 
small golden coins. 

They were coins such as Manly knew none of his 
comrades had possessed, and there was a gleam in 
his eyes as he looked at the officer, neither speaking 
a word. 

Quietly they walked over to Dillon, searched him, 
and found three more coins of the same kind. 

“Reckon that was the motive, sir,” said Manly. 
“They found these while they were exploring the 
island, and Dillon, thinking he had come across 
treasure-trove, decided to kill us both off. Harper went 
first, and my turn would have come very soon. Thank 
God I went in search of Harper ! ” 

The officer agreed with Manly in his suggestion, 
and soon had his men searching the beach; but not 
*inother coin was discovered. Instead, they found the 


Romance of Treasure-Trove 165 

skeleton of a man — of some poor mariner, no doubt, 
who had been cast ashore, his worldly possessions 
consisting of the five gold coins that had roused the 
cupidity of Dillon, and had brought tragedy upon 
them. 

Presently Manly was taken on board the Bristol, 
and sailed away from the coral island, the scene of a 
tragedy of treasure that never existed. 

Everyone has heard of the treasure of Cocos Islands, 
off Panama, to which many expeditions have been sent, 
though without success. The treasure was hidden by 
a pirate named Beneto Bonito, and hidden so securely 
that, although many expeditions — some of them recent 
ones — have been sent out to find it, none has yet suc- 
ceeded. But, despite failure, ye^r after year men go 
forth, secretly and well equipped, seeking the hoards of 
riches that they fondly believe they will some day find. 

Perhaps they will. 


ADVENTURES UNDER SEA 

Strange Happenings to Submarines and Divers 

M an, not content with fighting Father Neptune for 
mastery on the seas, has gone farther than that, 
and has sought to show that he is not afraid of any 
terrors beneath the seas : he would be master over all. 
So men have become divers; so ships which can sink 
and rise again have been made. And the diver and the 
submarine boat have added to the tale of man’s conquest 
over Nature ; their chapter is as full of vigour and vim 
and adventure as any chapter in the tale. 

We are not concerned with the make-up of the sub- 
marine, but with the adventures of the brave and hardy 
sailors who man them, and the part the boats play in 
great naval wars. The latter may be dismissed by say- 
ing that the submarine’s work is to dash forth from the 
security of harbours, and make sudden attacks upon the 
bigger craft of the enemy in the hope of reducing their 
number. These were the tactics employed by Germany 
in the great war of 1914-15. Aware that Britain’s 
navy was vastly superior to her own, and that the only 
hope for success in a great encounter would be when 
the British navy had been reduced, Germany kept her 
Dreadnoughts and other big craft safe in her harbours, 
contenting herself with sending out submarines to 
strike sudden blows at the British patrolling vessels 
guarding the seas. Britain employed her submarines 
for the purpose of luring the Germans from their har- 

166 


Adventures under Sea 167 

hours (as the account, given in another chapter, of the 
Battle of the Bight of Heligoland shows). 

While British and German submarines were play- 
ing the risky game of scouring the seas, French 
submarines were not idle; and in the latter days of 
December, 1914, there was told the story of an adven- 
ture as thrilling as ever fictionist wove for the delight of 
his readers. 

The number of the submarine was not given ; neither 
was the name of the place where the incident took place. 
All that was told was that on a certain Saturday morn- 
ing the submarine left port, and at three o’clock on the 
following morning had reached its objective — namely, 
an enemy port. Two miles out the boat dived, and 
going at the rate of about three miles an hour, made for 
the entrance of the port where the Frenchmen hoped to 
find some battleships which would provide good targets 
for their torpedoes. In due course they reached the 
entrance ; it was guarded by a boom, on the other side 
of which were several battleships and destroyers. 

Chagrined at the fact that the boom prevented them 
from firing at the warships, the French sailors hung 
about awhile in the hope that the enemy would perhaps 
issue forth. Meanwhile, the officer kept his eye upon 
the mirror, which through the periscope showed him 
what was going on, and which, incidentally, was a 
source of danger to the submarine; for the eye of the 
submarine, sticking up about eighteen inches above the 
surface, is easily seen in good light by the look-out of a 
battleship; and in time of war a very sharp watch is 
kept for these bobbing “eyes,” which betoken the pres- 
ence of death-dealing boats. The Frenchmen knew 
their danger, but they had come out to do something, 
and refused to give up until they found it impossible to 
carry out their mission. 


i68 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

So they stayed there — waiting for something to 
happen. 

Then it happened. 

The man at the mirror saw the battleships and de- 
stroyers moving, and, giving the order to stand by, he 
waited until they passed within a short distance of the 
submarine. They were anxious moments for every man 
in her ; they knew that at any minute some watcher on 
the enemy’s decks might detect them and heavy shells 
come hurtling towards them, perhaps to snap the peri- 
scope and turn the cigar-shaped craft into a blind, 
helpless thing, when, if she kept below, she might run 
foul of a ship’s bottom, and if she rose to the surface 
be at the mercy of the waiting foes. Into such moments 
is crowded the spice of war, and these gallant French- 
men were quite prepared for it. 

Luckily the foes passed by without noticing the lurk- 
ing boat, and the officer, anxious to get within a dis- 
tance which would enable him to take a more accurate 
aim, gave orders for the submarine to draw nearer to 
them. Stealthily she approached, every man in her at 
tension and at his post, ready for the time to come when 
they could launch their death-tube. 

Suddenly the boat seemed to shiver, then to strain 
as a dog strains at the leash, then to shiver again ; and 
there was a grinding noise. Then the boat came to a 
standstill, though her engines were still going. 

Instantly the men sprang into action, seeking the 
cause of this unfortunate event. What had happened ? 
they asked themselves. They soon knew. Investiga- 
tion showed them that steel cables had caught the rudder 
of their boat and held her prisoner. Apparently this 
was a method adopted by the enemy to trap them, for 
the cables drew them upwards — ever upwards, till they 
were close to the surface, and at the same time torpedoes 


Adventures under Sea 169 

came swishing through the water towards them. Time 
after time these death-tubes sped at them, to miss them 
by merest fractions of inches, it seemed. Simultaneously 
shells fell thick and fast around them, sending 
the water up in great spouts. It was literally an inferno, 
from which the Frenchmen realised that there was 
little chance of escape. But what chance there was 
they took. 

Boxed up in their little citadel they waited for death — 
waited for the crash that would tell them a shell had 
found its target; waited for the explosion which would 
end the suspense and bring the death that was so slow 
in coming. This waiting in helplessness was far worse 
than taking the chances of death in an encounter with 
the foe when they were free to fight manfully against 
them. 

But though they knew that death was so near to 
them, and though escape seemed impossible, yet they 
bent their every effort in an attempt to free the boat from 
the grip of the cables. They filled the water tanks to 
their utmost capacity, and every man joined in pressing 
on the steering wheel; the perspiration of energy and 
anxiety stood upon their brows as they worked; the 
atmosphere was electric; they knew that the next few 
minutes must decide their fate. How they worked ! 
What prayers for life they prayed, these men of death ! 

Suddenly the grim silence of the interior was broken 
by the cries of the men — cries of joy. With her engines 
at full speed, the little craft had fought and strained 
against the impeding leash, had fought victoriously, for 
with a jerk the cables broke away and the submarine 
bounded forward; the men at the wheel felt it answer 
to their pressure, and down the boat went at full speed 
to a depth of sixteen metres. 

They were saved ! 


170 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

Ecstatic in their joy at deliverance the Frenchmen 
embraced each other, and for a moment forgot that above 
them rode the giant foes who, unaware yet that they had 
escaped from the cables, were no doubt still potting away 
at the spot, and still sending their torpedoes in that 
direction. But very soon the sailors came back to the 
world of action, and realised that they were still far 
from safe; they must hurry away immediately if they 
would escape. There was little chance of doing any 
damage to the foe, who were now on the qui vive ; and 
only one course was open to the French, and that was 
to get away. They dared not rise to the surface, and 
they had to chance their luck and keep below. For 
two hours — hours full of anxiety — they went along under 
water, well aware that they were pursued by the foes, 
whose guns continually spoke as the periscope was fired 
at. Knot after knot was eaten up, and still the pursuers 
kept on after them ; but at last they were shaken off, 
and the men in the submarine knew that they were 
indeed safe. 

But, cautious even now, they still remained beneath 
the surface till the shades of evening fell ; and then, and 
then only, did they dare to rise, after having been 
submerged for nothing short of twelve hours ! Twelve 
hours as full of peril and thrill as any hours man ever 
spent ! 

They were not even then out of the wood ; for shortly 
afterwards they sighted another of the enemy’s ships, 
and again they had to dive and go on their way beneath 
the water ; but eventually they reached their port safely, 
happy to have escaped, but chagrined at not having been 
able to do any damage to the foe. 

Because we do not reap the benefits in daily life 
of the work of the diver, few of us give him much 


Adventures under Sea 171 

thought; but for a hazardous, heroic vocation, that of 
the man in the diving suit is probably without equal. 

A thousand little things may happen, and each one 
of them be sufficient to cut the slender thread of life for 
the diver; a man in the boat above, for instance, may 
make a slight mistake, and — but there is no need to 
moralise. Take the case of John Edward Pearce, a 
diver, who one day in 1868 was hard at work in eighty 
feet of water, where the sunken barque Mindora lay 
off Dover. You couldn’t have seen the diver, of course, 
but the cutter riding to the swell, and the man aboard 
her holding the life-line, would have told you plainly 
enough that below the water was a man working 
amidst the remains of what was once a proud little 
ship. 

That man with the line was in touch with the man 
below; he held the thread of life and death. Suddenly 
he received a signal from below, and called out to an- 
other man, a diver : 

“Slack away the wreck rope ! ” 

“Aye, aye!” cried the man. And it was done. 
Then the two men waited, expecting to see the diver’s 
helmet appear above the surface, and ready to haul him 
aboard. 

But there was no sign of Pearce; only something 
was happening down there, for the man with the life- 
line could tell by the puli. 

“What’s he up to?” the diver asked, for he knew 
that it was unusual for a diver to give the signal to 
come up and then to remain below. 

“I don’t know,” was the reply, “but he seems to 
have gone back into the hold again.” 

“Reckon you’re wrong,” said the diver. “The line’s 
too deep for him to be in the hold. Something’s gone 
wrong.” 


I'jz The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

They signalled down to Pearce again and again, 
but getting no answer began to haul away at the hoisting 
tackle. 

After an anxious time of straining at the ropes, they 
succeeded in bringing the diver to the surface, hauled 
him into the cutter, unscrewed his helmet and — thought 
him dead. Applying artificial re'spiration immediately in 
the hope of his being alive, and forcing brandy between 
the clenched teeth, they were fortunate enough to bring 
Pearce round; and then the mystery was explained. 
The signal man had made a mistake; he had called 
“Slack away ! ” when he should not have done, with the 
result that the diver had slipped from the deck of the 
sunken Mindora, to fall heavily on the floor of the 
ocean, cutting his air supply and knocking himself un- 
conscious. A few moments more down there, with the 
air supply cut off, and he would inevitably have died of 
suffocation. 

This was by no means the only adventure that befel 
Pearce in the course of his work in the depths, and 
although the following incident took place in a river, 
and not at sea, it may be included in this record. He 
was at work on the s.s. London, which had sunk in the 
Tay, and his task was to attach the bales of cotton with 
which she was laden to the large drag hooks which men 
in the vessel above were letting down to him. What 
made the job a ticklish one was the fact that the water 
was thick, and, as he himself said, “ I had to do all my 
work by feeling ! ” 

It is easy to imagine that Pearce found it very hard 
to manipulate the drag hook which, after hauling a bale 
up, would descend to him again, perhaps narrowly miss- 
ing knocking him on the helmet, to the danger of the 
glass front, which, breaking, would mean death. How- 
ever, this did not happen; instead, after he had fixed 


Adventures under Sea 173 

the four-pronged hook in a bale it slipped, and in doing 
so, and before Pearce could jump aside, caught him in 
the palm of his hand. The winches above, of course, 
were hauling away at the chain which, going up, carried 
Pearce with it, and soon he found himself in intense 
agony on the upper deck of the London. By good luck 
he managed to wrench the hook out of his palm just 
then, and the chain went upwards without a load, and 
the men above believed that the bale had slipped as it 
was being hoisted. They little knew what kind of a 
load it had had on it — a human load ! Once free of the 
hook Pearce, suffering severely, and feeling faint from 
loss of blood, gave the signal to be hauled up, and in 
a short time was on the surface. The men in the lighter 
quickly attended to him, and they found that his palm 
had been torn completely open, and that the hook had 
penetrated the third finger. That accident cost Pearce 
three months’ work, and for a long time he despaired 
of ever being able to use the hand again. 

Jim Hartley, diver, had an adventure of another kind 
under the sea. A vessel had sunk off Honolulu, 
and Hartley, who was stranded at the island after 
roving around a bit, undertook to explore the wreck if 
a diving suit could be found. The island was ran- 
sacked and a suit found, whereupon Hartley donned it, 
and rowed out in a small sloop with one man to help 
him. The people on the shore had told him to beware 
of sharks, and Hartley took with him a large knife — 
and it was a good job he did ! The first time he went 
down he couldn’t do much good, because he landed 
amongst a lot of sharp rocks which threatened to cut his 
air pipe; so he went up again, and ventured down on 
the next good tide. This time he lighted on the sunken 
ship, which had a big hole in her port bow. Thinking 
he would inspect the other side Hartley started to go 


174 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

round, when there was a swirl of water, a sudden darken- 
ing, and a jerk at the signal line and air pipe. 

Instinctively Hartley knew that a big fish had fouled 
him, and thoughts of sharks entered his mind. Look- 
ing up through the now cloudy water, he saw a huge 
shark. Presence of mind is the great thing for a diver 
to possess, and Hartley had it. Quick as lightning he 
dropped on to his back and lay there, waiting for the 
shark to come, knowing that in that position he had a 
better chance if it came to a fight than he would have 
if he stood upright. His great fear was that the shark 
might cut the air-hose, and that if the man in the 
sloop caught sight of the shark he might begin to haul 
up. In that case, the diver knew that he would be at 
the mercy of the great fish, which would swoop down 
upon him as he was going up, and while he had no 
leverage for his feet. 

Fortunately the man in the sloop did not see the 
shark, and Hartley, lying there on his back, with his 
large knife held in his right hand, waited — anxiously, 
watchfully — wondering what the shark would do. As 
though playing with its prey the huge fish swam back 
a few yards, then forward again, and this time it was 
lower down, and so nearer to the supine man, who ex- 
pected that every minute the shark would swoop down 
upon him. But no; back it went again, only to swim 
forward once more until it was three feet above him. 

This was Hartley’s opportunity ; he knew that if the 
shark hauled off again, the next time it would come 

right on to him, and then Hartley took opportunity 

by the forelock; he rose from his back, and, with a 
terrific lunge, thrust his knife at the shark. Instantly 
the water was dyed red, the great tail lashed the water 
angrily and caught Hartley a terrific thwack, which 
sent him headlong to the ground again. The water was 


Adventures under Sea 175 

now SO thick that it was impossible to see anything, and 
life depended on being able to find the signal line. 
Groping about in the dark, by great good luck the diver 
caught the rope, gave it a sharp tug that told the man 
above to haul away, and up went Hartley, nervous until 
he reached the surface lest the blow he had given the 
shark had not been sufficient to give it its quietus. 
However, all was well, and in due course the diver was 
able to go down again and complete his work. 

A more terrifying fight with a shark was that which 
a diver once had in a diving bell. In this case the diver 
sat on a small seat suspended in the bell, which slowly 
descended into the water. To the horror of the 
diver, when the bell rested on the bottom forty feet 
down, he discovered that he had a companion — a shark ! 
The great fish darted hither and thither about the bell, 
and a whisk of its tail knocked the diver off his seat. 
Quick as lightning the man scrambled to his place again 
and sat there, a hopeless prisoner, with the tiger of the 
seas almost brushing against him as it swooped around 
the bell, seeking to find a way out of the prison. It 
grew angrier and angrier every moment, and the diver 
knew that it would soon turn upon him unless he could 
manage to kill it at once. Round and round the bell 
went the maddened fish ; silent, anxious, the diver waited 
for his chance; and as the shark drew near to him, he 
made a sudden grab at its dorsal fin with one hand, 
and with the other drove a sharp tool into the gleaming 
side. 

It was but the beginning of things. The blow 
seemed to make the shark more angry than ever; and 
the blood-red water was lashed to a fury as the fish 
turned and swept down upon the man, seeking to catch 
him in its capacious maw. How he held on to his 
seat the diver never knew, but he did so; and every 


176 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

time the shark dashed near him he stabbed at it vici- 
ously with the tool. It was, indeed, a duel to the death, 
this fight between the stabbing man and the flashing 
fish. The diver, who had given the signal to be hoisted 
up, prayed that the men above would not take long, for 
he was becoming weary of . the struggle. His arms were 
aching, his head was swimming, and, despite all his 
pluck, there was the haunting dread that the giant fish 
might be victorious. Luckily for the man the shark 
was also weakened, though even in its death agonies it 
made attacks upon the diver, who was presently glad- 
dened at the sight of daylight and the ship. Quickly 
the crew had the bell aboard, and before their eyes was 
a strange sight : a dying shark, in death-travail, lashing 
its tail on the deck, and a man, faint, weary, nauseated, 
who dropped beside the victim. 

Here is another picture of a man’s adventure among 
sharks. A cattle ship had been wrecked. A diver went 
below to overhaul it, and found that a school of sharks 
had got there before him, attracted by the smell of the 
feast they nosed about after. Laying a charge and blow- 
ing off the hatches, the diver saw the carcasses of the 
cattle rise from the hold, to be attacked immediately by 
the hungry sharks which swarmed about him. There 
were two alternatives open to him : either to remain 
below and risk having his airpipe severed, or to go up 
and risk being attacked as he went. He chose the latter 
as being the lesser of two evils. So the signal was 
given ; the men above began to haul him up. As he 
went he had to pass through the school of voracious fish, 
some of which turned their attention away from the dead 
cattle to the living man. Swinging from this side to 
that as he was attacked, the diver managed to ward off 
the tigers of the deep, and, by a very miracle, reached 
the surface with no more hurt than an injured hand. 



“ Swinging from this side to that as he was attacked, the diver managed to 
ward off the tigers of the deep” {see page 176) 







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CHASING PIRATES IN THE CHINA SEA 

Tales of Modern Pirate Hunting 

TT must not be supposed that all pirates lived in the 
A far distant past, or that there are no pirates now- 
adays. It is true that the picturesque gentlemen whose 
acquaintance we have made so far have disappeared from 
the high seas, but fellow rogues of theirs still ply their 
trade far away in the East. The coasts of China have 
always been infested by pirates; of course, they are not 
so numerous or so open in their methods to-day as they 
were, say, forty or fifty years ago, for China has awak- 
ened from her lethargy of ages, and her ancient civilisa- 
tion is being supplanted by a newer one which will not 
tolerate pirates. As a matter of fact, the old Chinese 
civilisation did not tolerate them ; but the officials were 
so slack, and so cowardly, that the freebooters laughed 
at them and their efforts to suppress piracy. It was 
for this reason that Great Britain had gunboats in the 
Far Eastern waters whose mission it was to destroy 
the pirates — rout them out of their strongholds, and 
sink or capture their junks. 

The Gulf of Tonquin, the island of Hainan, and the 
length of coast from that point to Macao, were — and are 
— what might be termed the hunting-ground of the 
Chinese pirates. Macao, as a glance at the map will 
show, is on the opposite side of the Canton River to 
Hong-Kong, the British naval base. The trading was 
done chiefly from Hong-Kong to the northward, the 

M 177 


178 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

country below Macao being practically unknown to 
Europeans. The British steamer Takon was held up 
on April 27th, 1914, by pirates off Kian, to the north of 
Macao. It was late at night, and the captain was on 
his bridge. The pirates swarmed along the deck, killing 
as they went, and instantly all was confusion. There 
were two hundred and thirty people on board, including 
passengers and crew, and it was a bold attempt the 
pirates made. The officers and crew opposed them 
nobly, and tried to force them back; but nothing could 
stop them. Across the deck they went towards the 
bridge where the captain stood, revolver in hand, blaz- 
ing away at them as fast as he could. Here so good a 
stand was made, that the pirates found they would be 
unable to win, and, while some kept the captain and 
his few men engaged, others rushed below and set fire 
to the ship. Very soon the vessel was a blazing mass, 
with women and children screaming, pirates jumping 
overboard to escape capture, the crew launching boats 
and trying to get the women and children off. 

Naturally, after the turmoil of the fight, there was 
much confusion, for people had lost their heads, and 
though incoming steamers rescued over a hundred and 
fifty from the ship, which was burnt to the water’s edge, 
when the toll was taken next morning it was found that 
a hundred and eighty were missing, including the chief 
officer, Evans, who had been last seen clinging to a 
floating oar. Of the rescued, some showed signs of the 
encounter with the pirates, several of whom had been 
killed and a number of others wounded. 

To go farther back, in 1865, a large junk, with a fine 
cargo of opium, left the port bound for Swatow in the 
north. Now, as the junk was well armed and well 
manned, having no fewer than a dozen 12- to 1 8-pounder 
guns and some forty-five men on board, it seemed un- 


Chasing Pirates in the China Sea 179 

likely that she would be molested by the pirates. For 
this reason a number of people sailed in her, thinking 
themselves safe. The better not to be noticed by any 
prowling piratical craft, the junk slipped out of harbour 
at evening, but, the wind falling, she had to anchor 
about nine o’clock a few miles from the outer roads of 
Hong-Kong, the crew, despite their strength, and the 
passengers, despite the crew, feeling anything but at 
ease in their minds; at any moment they knew they 
might be swooped down upon by a number of pirate 
junks, and then — well, here is the “then.” 

At midnight, while the passengers were tossing 
about uneasily, a dark shape loomed out of the night, 
there was a grating of ship’s side against ship’s side, 
the patter of running feet on deck, and before the crew 
or the passengers could gather themselves together — 
before they even knew what was afoot — they were 
clapped under the hatches, prisoners to pirates. Eighty- 
three people had been captured by, perhaps, half that 
number ! 

Once having secured their prisoners, the pirates set 
the junk’s sails, and under cover of the darkness took 
her back towards Hong-Kong, keeping well away from 
the coast until they were on the south side of the island. 
Here, at daybreak, they ordered the prisoners to come 
up on deck one by one. 

They came ; and as each one showed head above the 
hatch, he or she — for there were women and children 
aboard — was seized by the pirates, bound hand and 
foot, and pitched headlong into the sea; these ruffians 
didn’t trouble about planks ! A man stood too much 
chance of being saved if he walked off a plank, and 
very little if flung overboard with his feet and hands 
tied. 

Eighty-two of the batch were treated in this way. 


i8o The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

the sole exception being a child of twelve years of age, 
whom they decided to keep and turn into ship’s boy. 
Then away went the pirates to a snug little harbour 
near Macao, where they shared their spoil — no little lot, 
either, for the ship had been well laden. Then the 
captured junk was burnt, and the pirates broke up into 
little companies and went anywhere they felt inclined, 
to spend their ill-gotten gains, and then to return to 
their trade. 

Seven of the rogues, taking the little boy with them, 
boarded a steamer bound for Hong-Kong. The pirates, 
used to such ventures, maintained a fine pose, but the 
poor little laddie, scared out of his wits and wondering 
what was likely to happen to him, attracted the attention 
of the captain. 

“What’s the matter?” asked the captain. And, 
with nervous glances about him, lest a pirate should 
catch him confiding to the kind-hearted man, the boy 
told him the story of the tragic night on the junk. 
Telling him to say nothing to anyone else, the captain, 
when the steamer arrived at Hong-Kong, stopped in 
the middle of the river, and hailed the police-boat. 
This arriving, the whole batch of passengers, number- 
ing over a hundred, was lined up, and the boy made 
to pick out the seven pirates, who were taken prisoners 
and sent to the lock-up. 

The people of Hong-Kong were in a fine stew over 
the matter already, for the previous evening one of the 
men who had been flung overboard had, by a miracle, 
succeeded in getting his hands and feet free, and, being 
a good swimmer, made his way to a small island near 
at hand, whence he took a fishing-boat to Hong-Kong 
and told his story. But though the authorities made 
inquiries none of the pirates were captured, except the 
seven mentioned, who were duly tried and hanged. 


Chasing Pirates in the China Sea i8i 

The terror which the pirates struck into the inhabitants 
of the small coast towns — and large ones, too — is clearly 
shown in the following story, told by Captain St. John, 
R.N., who commanded one of the gunboats detailed to 
tackle the rovers. He was cruising about the coast in 
1865, shortly after the incident above-mentioned, when 
a sampan hailed him, and the fisherman in it cried 
excitedly ; 

“Have got pilong ! ” (pirate). 

“Where?” he was asked. 

“Can makee see,” was the answer. And he pointed 
to a couple of junks which were making out to sea. 
That was enough for St. John. After them he went, 
and the junks had no chance against the steam gun- 
boat, which rapidly overhauled them. Before the British 
vessel could get alongside, however, a number of other 
junks swung out from the shore, and there began a 
miniature battle — much noise, much smoke, though 
probably not much damage on the part of the official 
junks, anyhow; for it was left to Captain St. John 
to effect the capture of the pirate junks. Anchoring 
off shore with his prisoners, the captain interviewed 
the mandarin who came aboard. In true Oriental 
fashion the latter thanked the Britisher for what he had 
done, considering it a vast achievement to have captured 
a couple of junks and twenty-one men. 

“These two junks,” he said, “have given me a great 
deal of trouble for four days; they have blockaded the 
place; neither a fishing nor a trading junk has been 
able to get out ! ” 

Naturally, Captain St. John was surprised that two 
miserable junks, with twenty-one men and a two- 
pounder gun, could have effectively shut up a port in 
such a way. The mandarin excused himself and his 
people by saying that they were very, very scared of 


i 82 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

pirates, and on being asked if he hadn’t any soldiers, 
replied that he had eight hundred ashore. Eight 
hundred soldiers, and a hundred or so junks knocking 
about the harbour, and yet the two pirate craft could 
hold up a whole port’s trade for over half a week I And 
the port had 4,000 inhabitants ! 

“Well,” said the captain to the mandarin, “if I were 
a Chinaman, I think I would turn pirate at once. They 
must lead very jolly, independent lives ! ” 

“Yes, they do,” answered the mandarin, not appre- 
ciating the captain’s humour. “The only things they 
fear are English gunboats.” 

Pickshui, one of the strongholds of the pirates, had 
already been burned down twice by Captain St. John ; 
but, having been rebuilt, it was determined that once 
and for all it should be razed to the ground. A large 
expedition, consisting of fifty-three war-junks, sixteen 
hundred Chinese troops, four English gunboats and a 
steamer was detailed to do this. Captain St. John being 
in command, though the part of his own little force was 
rather to encourage the Chinese than anything else. 
The armada arrived off Pickshui, which from its situa- 
tion was as good a place for the pirates to lurk in as 
could be found. The way in was through a channel 
between two islands, and vessels passing through were 
at the mercy of the pirate junks inside. The mandarin 
in charge of the Chinese section of the expedition knew 
this, and was pathetic in his refusal to venture in, or 
allow his own ships to do so, unless an English gunboat 
led the way. So in went the English, followed by the 
Chinese, who, indicative of their dread of the pirates, 
directed a heavy fire upon the village before they 
dared land a single man. Then, when they had plucked 
up sufficient courage, the celestial warriors leaped 
ashore, and a great mass of them rushed at the village, 


Chasing Pirates in the China Sea 183 

from which the inhabitants fled in terror. Then loot- 
ing began; and afterwards the village was burned to 
the ground — for the third time. 

But the work was not done ; large numbers of pirates 
were hidden amongst the trees, and kept up a continual 
fire upon the Chinese troops who were told to clear 
them out of the woods. Eight hundred of the soldiers 
were detailed for this task, and for a time they kept up 
a brisk, though useless, because ill-directed, fire upon 
the pirates. Then they refused to advance a single 
inch; it was only courting death, they said. 

“ My troops cannot take the place ! ” cried the 
mandarin to Captain St. John, in an awful agony of 
spirit. 

“Go in at them,” exclaimed the captain, “and they’ll 
run as fast as their legs can carry them ! ” 

A blank refusal was the only answer, and the captain 
realised that if the expedition was to be a success, he 
would have to make it so. He therefore promised to 
help, and, taking one sailor and one marine, he landed 
and went to where the Imperial cowards were waiting. 
The mandarin, fear written all over his face, took his 
stand with his men, but the captain and his two com- 
panions went forward alone, getting close up to where 
the pirates were concealed. 

These three intrepid men opened fire upon the 
lurkers, and what all the desultory firing of the Imperial 
troops had failed to do, they did; they alone sent the 
pirates fleeing for their lives ! 

And that little affair upset the ruffians at Pickshui ! 

How scared the pirates were of a handful of English- 
men is shown by an encounter which Captain St. John 
had with them in another little bay, where the gunboat 
could not enter, the entrance being too narrow and the 
water too shallow. As the pirate junks would be lined 


184 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

Up inside, ready to meet with a heavy fire any attacking 
boats, some other way had to be devised, and the 
captain hit on a method which, as it turned out, was 
successful. He landed at a spot some distance from 
the entrance, taking seven men with him, and arranging 
for another boat to put out when the gunboat reached 
the entrance of the channel. 

The way to the pirates’ rendezvous lay through a 
quarter of a mile of scrubby bush and long grass, and 
up the side of a hill. Cautiously this ground was 
covered and the summit of the hill reached. Down in 
the bay lay three large junks, broadside on to the en- 
trance, ready to give a good fight to any who tried to 
get in. Their men were at the guns, twenty-six in all — 
a fair armament, and one likely to cause havoc in any 
boats which dare attempt to enter. As for men, there 
were about ten to one against the English ; but the job 
had to be done. 

Grounded on the shore was a small sampan, hidden 
from the junks by some trees; and Captain St. John 
resolved that he would have this sampan. Just as he 
had made up his mind to obtain it, the gunboat ap- 
peared at the entrance and the pirates began to get to 
business. But before they had a chance to fire, St. 
John and three of his men had scrambled into the 
sampan, pushed off, and took them in the rear. They 
were seen immediately, before ever they got near enough 
to board, and the three other men, who were coming 
along the shore, were also seen. 

Never were mortals so scared as were those poor 
pirates ! Seven men — white men, Englishmen ! So 
vast an army had come out against them ! It was more 
than piratic endurance and pluck could stand ; and over 
the side went the raiders, some being fortunate enough 
to drop into the boats alongside, others tumbling head- 


Chasing Pirates in the China Sea 185 

long into the water. Such a scene you never saw ! Such 
yells of fear you never heard ! 

And four of those seven men were in a sampan that 
simply refused to be steered, but spun round and round 
and round, so that they could neither get aboard nor 
grab any of the pirates. Then, to add to the con- 
sternation of the ruffians, another boat, with more 
Englishmen, appeared in the entrance; and there were 
no men at the guns to fire the grapeshot which they 
had hoped would blow the sailors from the sea ! 

And instead of doing that the pirates splashed and 
scrambled about in frantic efforts to reach shore, all of 
them managing to do so except about half a dozen who 
were taken prisoners. Then the Englishmen had a 
bonfire, the junks forming the fuel for it. 

Truly, pirate-hunting in the Far East is a fine sport ! 


A VOYAGE OF DANGER 

The Mutiny on the Flo^er^ Land 

I T is significant to note that, in the merchant service, 
most of the mutinies on the record of shame have 
as their ringleaders — and rank and file — foreign sailors 
aboard British ships; and the mutiny on board the 
Flowery Land was no exception. 

The Flowery Land, laden with wines, and a mixed 
cargo besides, left the Port of London on July 28, 1863, 
bound for Singapore. Crew and officers numbered 
twenty, the captain bearing the honest, if common, 
name of John Smith; with him, as a passenger, sailed 
his brother George. 

They had not been at sea long before Captain Smith 
found that he had a very tough set of men to deal with. 
They were a cosmopolitan crowd — Spaniards, Turks, 
Greeks, Norwegians, Chinamen, and a sprinkling of 
Englishmen, these latter being Karswell, the first mate, 
and William Taffir, the second mate. The seamen, 
being far from sweet-tempered, and giving evidence 
every now and then of insubordination, had to be taken 
pretty strongly in hand, which took the form of rope’s- 
ending some of them occasionally to quell their unruly 
spirits. Such treatment, however, only seemed to arouse 
the antipathy of the crew, who secretly plotted against 
the captain and his officers; and when one day George 
Carlos, the Greek, after a particularly flagrant piece of 
insubordination, was hauled on deck and strapped to 
186 


A Voyage of Danger 187 

the bulwark for a while, it made them more determined 
than ever to get their own back. Not that this treatment 
of Carlos was anything out of the way; it was a very 
frequent form of punishment for the law-breaker at sea. 
And, as a matter of fact, Carlos did not get all he de- 
served, for Captain Smith took pity on him, and had 
him released sooner than he need have done, and went 
so far as to physic him and let him go to his bunk for 
a rest. 

But what harsh treatment did not effect, kind was 
unable to, and Carlos nursed revenge in his heart. With 
his cosmopolitan comrades he worked up a mutiny 
which broke out on September lo, at about three o’clock 
in the morning. 

The captain was below at the time, and Karswell was 
on deck, it being his watch; and the conspirators had 
timed things so that the two could not help each other. 
Suddenly the storm burst; one party made a rush for 
Karswell, who, taken unawares, was felled to the deck 
with handspikes. 

“ Mercy ! ” he cried in his agony ; but the ruffians 
were out for blood, and, not heeding his cries, struck 
him again and again, battering in his head and smashing 
his face. Then, having taken so much of revenge, they 
picked the still screaming man up from the deck, carried 
him to the side, and heaved him into the sea. 

Meanwhile, down in the cabin, the captain had heard 
the noise, and, jumping up, had rushed half-way up the 
companion-way. He got no farther; several men met 
him, including Francisco Blanco and Brasilio de los 
Santos, and, armed with handspikes and daggers, they 
fell upon him with fury. Clinging to the ladder, seek- 
ing to work his way up, the captain was hacked, 
stabbed, and stabbed again, and then chased below and 
beaten till his body was racked with pain. 


i88 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

Taffir, the second mate, also roused by the hubbub, 
tried to get on to the deck, but was stopped by a 
struggling crowd on the companion, who were treat- 
ing another man as they had treated the captain. A 
handspike sent him spinning down again; but once 
more he ran up, and caught hold this time of the man, 
and tried to pull him out of danger. He did not know 
then what had happened to Smith, and he called out 
lustily on the captain for help. There was no answer; 
only another blow that sent him hurtling below. 

Picking himself up, he ran to the captain’s cabin, 
only to find it empty. From there he hurried to the 
main cabin, and here the flickering light of the un- 
trimmed lamp showed him the captain lying in a pool 
of blood. The mutineers had finished him off there. 
He was dead. Half maddened by the horror of it all, 
Taffir rushed to the berth of the captain’s brother. That 
also was empty. George Smith had been beaten on the 
head with handspikes till the life was out of him, and 
then had been pitched overboard. Realising now that 
there was little mercy being shown to whoever fell into 
the mutineers’ hands, Taffir sought safety in his own 
cabin, where he locked himself in, and waited in anguish 
for about three-quarters of an hour, refusing to answer 
the calls of the seamen as they pounded at his door. 

In the meantime the mutineers were having a clean 
sweep up; they knocked the carpenter, Michael Ander- 
son, on the head, and ransacked the ship to see what 
they could find. Then they bethought themselves of 
Taffir again. Although he did not know it, Taffir was 
destined to be saved, for the sole reason that, now that 
they had disposed of the other officers, he was the only 
man who knew anything about navigation; and, even 
when you’ve got a ship in your hands, it’s not much 
use unless you can do something with it. 


A Voyage of Danger 189 

So down they went to Taffir’s cabin, and on his 
refusing to open the door to them, they smashed it in 
and marched into the cabin, where, as bloodstained, 
ruffianly looking a crew as man ever saw, they stood 
in a half-circle round his berth. 

“Come out ! ” cried John Lyons, a Spaniard. “Come 
out ! ” 

Thinking that acquiescence was the safest thing, 
Taffir got out and stood before them. 

“Are you going to kill me?” he asked, anxiously 
waiting for the answer, and half fearing what it might 
be. He had little reason to expect mercy from men 
who had so far shown none. 

“No,” said Lyons. “But we’ve killed the skipper 
and the mate, and the captain’s brother has got away 
somewhere. We want you to work the ship to some- 
where. Will you do it?” 

For a moment or so Taffir thought. To say “Yes” 
was to lend himself to the crime; to say “No” was to 
ask for death. And, after all, refusing would do nothing 
for the men who had been killed, whereas to agree might 
lead to the bringing of the ruffians to justice. 

“All right,” he said presently, and the party went 
on deck again. 

Going to the main cabin, Taffir saw that Captain 
Smith’s body had a rope round it, and that Watto, the 
Turk, was going to haul it up on deck to heave it 
overboard. 

“Hold! Let me sew it up in canvas,” cried 
Taffir, with all the sailor’s reverence for the dead; 
and the mutineers, knowing that, after all, they must 
humour the mate, consented. Taffir performed his sad 
office, and Captain Smith had a decent burial at sea, 
minus the service. 

It was five o’clock before Taffir went up on deck. 


a 


190 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

and as he did so he passed Santos, who flourished 
big knife at him, as though he would much like to do 
with Taffir as he had done with the captain. 

Having seen that the ship was going all right, Taffir 
went back to the cabin, and remained there till about 
eight o’clock, when all the hands except the man at the 
wheel came down to interview him. 

“Come into the captain’s cabin,” said Lyon sternly. 

“What for?” Taffir asked, though he had already 
guessed what was afoot. 

“We want to see what money and clothes he’d got,” 
was the reply ; and although he did not say so, Lyons’s 
idea was that, if they got Taffir there, and made him 
share with them, they could say that he was a party to 
the whole affair. 

Needs must when the devil drives ; and so Taffir went 
into the cabin, standing by while Santos, Blanco, 
Carlos, Watto, and Lopez ransacked it for everything 
of value. They broke open boxes and chests, wrenched 
open the desks, and, gathering all the money they could 
find, took it into the main cabin, where they laid it upon 
the table for division. 

“Dole it out in seventeen parts,” said Lyons to 
Taffir. 

“No ! ” screamed the Turk. “Make it eight ! ” 

“Shut up!” said Lyons threateningly, and Taffir 
thought that the thieves were going to quarrel amongst 
themselves. However, the matter was smoothed over, 
and Lyons had his own way. 

Into seventeen parts the money was divided. 

“Here’s yours,” said Lyons to the mate. 

“I won’t touch a cent of it,” said Taffir, seeing what 
the idea was. 

“You’ll do as I tell you,” cried Lyons, “or ” 

He let the rest go by default, and Taffir knew what 


A Voyage of Danger 191 

he meant. There was nothing for it, and, taking the 
share, the mate carried it to one of the writing-desks 
and put it in there, though he never saw it again. 
Perhaps the greedy Turk had it. 

Next the mutineers allotted out the captain’s clothes, 
though they did not give Taffir a share of them. When 
they came to Smith’s watch they decided that, as they 
couldn’t very well divide that, they would keep it till 
they landed, when they might be able to sell it. The 
timepiece was therefore put into the writing-desk with 
Taffir’s money; but that also disappeared, and later 
was a source of trouble. 

Having settled up these little matters fairly amicably, 
the question was to get to land, and Taffir was made to 
navigate the vessel, while the crew, when it was not 
necessary for them to work, regaled themselves with 
champagne and overhauled the cargo for valuables. 

For some days everything went on smoothly, and 
then a ship was sighted. She proved to be the Friends, 
of Liverpool, and Taffir steered the Flowery Land to- 
wards her. Acting on instructions from Carlos, ,who 
was in charge of the ship, and had ordered her to be 
set for Buenos Ayres, under threat of death Taffir told 
the Friends* captain that she was the Louisa, bound for 
Valparaiso. 

Then the two ships parted company ; and barely had 
the Friends got away when the crew rushed towards 
Taffir, and, with daggers drawn, stood and jabbered 
at him like so many monkeys. Although he couldn’t 
understand what they were saying, 4:here was no mis- 
taking their attitude. Evidently they were angry with 
him for something, and it would have gone ill with 
Taffir had not Lyons come along. Quieting the angry 
crew, he abstracted from them the fact that they thought 
Taffir had just told the Friends the whole story of the 


192 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

mutiny. Lyons soon put them right on that little 
matter, and they went back to their champagne, 
appeased. 

The incident showed Taffir how slender was the 
thread on which his life hung, and he knew that he 
would have to be careful, for if these men suspected 
that he was playing them false there was little doubt 
that they would kill him out of hand, and risk what 
happened afterwards. They were like so many madmen, 
and one day Taffir saw the Turk go up to the Chinese 
steward and gash his arm open with a large knife for 
no apparent reason whatever. It turned out that they 
were forcing him to collect all the ship’s papers, which 
they threw overboard. Then they had a row about the 
captain’s watch, which was missing, and accused Taffir 
of having stolen it. It never was found, and was a sore 
point all through. 

On October 2 land was sighted, and now that they 
had no further use for him, the mutineers sent Taffir 
to Coventry. No one spoke to him or took any notice 
of him ; they even refused to let him work the ship, 
which they turned about. They sent Taffir to his cabin 
then, where he remained all day. At night Blanco went 
down and ordered him up on deck, where he found 
that they were clewing up the sails and getting the 
boats out. 

“What are you going to do?” he asked Lyons. 

No answer; only surly looks. 

“What’s going to be done with the ship?” he asked 
another of the Spaniards present, Marsolino. “And 
what about me ? Are you going to kill me ? ” For 
Taffir was convinced that momentous things were about 
to take place. 

“We’re going to scuttle the ship,” said Marsolino. 
“And as for you” — he leered — “as for you, I’m not 


A Voyage of Danger 193 

going to kill you — but I rather think Blanco is,” he 
added grimly. 

Naturally, Taffir was now all anxiety. Here he was, 
with a ship full of mutineers whose hands were already 
stained with innocent blood, and who were evidently 
preparing to leave the ship he had navigated for them. 
What a prospect was before him I He could almost 
feel the dagger eating its way into his body as the 
bloodthirsty Blanco looked across at him every now” 
and again. 

Three-quarters of an hour of such anxiety passed, 
and then Taffir was flung into one of the boats, which 
contained the cook, the steward, Frank Powell, Watto, 
and the ship’s boy, named Early. Evidently he was 
not going to be murdered after all. In another boat, 
riding at the stern, were several other men, while the 
rest were still on board the Flowery Land, 

Presently the boat in which Taffir had been thrown 
was pulled away from the ship, but had only gone about 
a hundred yards when those on the Flowery Land called 
her back. Taffir’s heart sank. Was he, after all, going 
to be hauled back to death ? He took heart again the 
next instant, for the men in the boat, with the exception 
of Watto, did not want to go back, and refused to pull 
towards the ship. Powell, who steered, refused to turn 
her head round, and Taffir thanked him in the silence 
of his own heart. Suddenly Watto, seizing an oar, 
threatened to knock Powell’s brains out if he didn’t do 
as he was told ; and the boat’s head swung round, and 
she sped towards the ship. They were anxious moments 
for poor Taffir, whose mind was not set at rest when 
Lyons, on the Flowery Land, ordered the lot of them 
to get back on deck. 

Why they were called back Taffir did not know, 
and was not told; probably it was because th^ ptbers 

N 


194 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

did not want one boat to start before the rest. Anyhow, 
for a long time Taffir was kept on deck; and though he 
could see but little in ihe darkness, he heard the noise 
made as the scoundrels loaded the boats, not forgetting 
the champagne, bottles of which they lowered into the 
craft riding at the sides. The Chinese steward fell into 
the water while trying to get aboard from the boat, and 
while struggling for life was pelted with bottles of 
champagne till he sank. Taffir saw his own fate there. 

Soon, however, as though to prolong his agony, 
they threw him into a boat, this time the one in which 
Lyons and Blanco were to sail. The fact that it was 
Blanco’s boat was anything but pleasing to Taffir, who 
remembered what Marsolino had told him, and trembled 
for his life. Durrano and Lopez, other Spaniards, also 
got into this boat, which was presently pushed off ; 
and almost immediately afterwards the Flowery Land, 
which had been scuttled, and had begun to settle some 
time before, gave a final plunge and dived beneath the 
surface. Through the darkness Taffir could see the 
Chinese boy and the cook clinging to the top ; they had 
been left to their fate, and not a hand was held out to 
save them. 

Lyons’s boat towed the other towards land, which 
was reached at four o’clock in the afternoon of 
October 9. Taffir was told that, if he valued his life, 
he was to say that the vessel was an American ship 
from Peru, bound for Bordeaux, and that she had 
foundered a hundred miles from land, that the captain 
had got into one boat, and had not been seen since, 
and that the two boats which had come ashore had been 
at sea for five days and nights. 

In his heart Taffir had made up his mind to tell 
of the tragedy as soon as an opportunity presented itself. 
That night the party slept at a farmhouse, and the 


A Voyage of Danger 195 

next day the farmer drove them to Rocha. Watching 
his time, Taffir managed to find out that at a place 
called Camp, twenty miles away, was a man named 
Ramoz, who could speak English ; and one night he 
slipped out of Rocha and made his way to Camp. He 
located Ramoz, to whom he told his tale, and later he 
was taken to the authorities, where once more he recited 
the events that had taken place on the Flowery Land, 
with the result that eight of the mutineers were captured, 
and in due course put on their trial at the Central 
Criminal Court, London. Lyons, Durrano, Santos, 
Watto, Blanco, Marsolino, and Lopez were found 
guilty of murder, Carlos being acquitted. 

Altogether, the mutiny of the Flowery Land is a 
lurid story of the sea. 


THE GUARDIANS OF THE COAST 


Stories of Coastguards and Lighthousemen 
yrHOUGH the coastguard and lighthouseman live 



their lives on land, they are inalienably a part of 
the sea and its story. Day by day, night by night, they 
are on guard along the coasts, and never know what 
may happen ; but, whatever it is, they are ready. 

And they are always modest of their achievements, as 
the letters I have received from some of them testify. 
It’s the hardest thing in the world to get them to talk 
about themselves; but, by dint of judicious question- 
ing, I managed to get some of them to give me the 
plain stories of what really did happen. 

The first concerns Lighthouseman William Hunter, 
of Flamborough Head, who, standing outside the light- 
house on a fine morning, talking with his superior 
officer, saw a gallant little band of boys of the Lads’ 
Brigade coming along. Presently there was a sharp 
command, and the lookers-on saw the boys disperse, 
and in a few minutes the laddies were scattered here, 
there, and everywhere, enjoying themselves to the full. 

But suddenly there was the blare of bugles, the cries 
of boys, the hoarse shouts of men, and Hunter turned 
quickly to his officer and said : 

“There’s something wrong I ” 

“Go and have a look,” was the reply; and off went 
the lighthouse-keeper. Following the sounds, he found 
himself down on the beach, just below the lighthouse. 


196 


The Guardians of the Coast 197 

What a sight met his eyes ! Before him was a group of 
boys staring up the cliff, fear writ large upon their faces 
as they saw one of their comrades clinging frenziedly to 
a shrub, able neither to go up nor to come down, while 
down on the beach, amongst the boulders, lay the 
huddled form of another boy. 

The two boys had been engaged in a wild scramble 
up the cliff, seeing which could reach the top first. 
Half-way up the foremost boy had displaced a large 
stone, which hurtled down, hit his comrade, and sent 
him tumbling down to the beach, where he now lay with 
a broken arm. 

As soon as the boy above realised what had hap- 
pened, fear took possession of him; his wits left him, 
and he, finding that he had reached a position where it 
was impossible to move with safety either way, he sent 
up haunting screams for help I As though the call had 
been necessary I The boys on the beach had seen the 
accident, and instantly the bugles had blared out their 
calls for help. And so Hunter had arrived on the 
scene. 

Like lightning he dashed across an intervening gut 
of water, slipping over seaweed as he went, and 
stumbling over rocks till he reached the foot of the cliff. 
Then, hand over hand, gingerly but quickly. Hunter 
made his way up the cliff, seizing anything that seemed 
likely to afford a handhold to help him up ; now making 
a fierce grab for a shrub as the earth gave way beneath 
him. And at last, after a feverish few minutes, during 
which the watchers down below held their breath and 
the folk above sent for further help, he came almost 
within reach of the boy. 

“Hold on, sonny I ” he cried. “I’m coming I ” 

“Come quickly ! ” cried the boy, shaking with fear. 
“I can’t hold out much longer ! ’’ 


198 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

Spurred on by the evident terror of the lad, Hunter 
covered the last ffcw feet quickly, and came alongside 
him just in the nick of time, for the youth was almost 
exhausted. His hands were bruised and cut from clutch- 
ing at stones, and the lighthouseman’s were little better. 

“You’re all right now, sonny,” he said. “We’ll 
soon have you down.” 

But, though he said the comforting words, there was 
a little thought at the back of his mind that it might be 
some time before they reached safety, for he, too, found 
that the position was none too safe a one ; that while he 
himself might have been able to get away alone, he 
could not hope to carry the unfortunate boy without 
further help. There was no use in looking down; help 
could not come that way. But it might come from 
above, and, glancing up, his heart gave a great bound 
as he saw that the coastguards, under Chief Officer 
Young, had arrived on the scene, bringing with them 
the one thing that was necessary — a rope I It was a 
very lifeline to Hunter. 

Down the rope fell ; and then the lighthouseman saw 
that, owing to the projecting edge of the cliff, it hung 
more than an arm’s length away from him. He would 
have to move carefully away in order to reach it. The 
boy seemed to realise this, and before Hunter moved an 
inch he called out in fear : 

“Don’t leave me, sir. I can’t hold on I ” 

“Now, see here, laddie,” was the reply. “You’re 
all right. I won’t let go of you. But I’ve got to get 
that rope. Keep still.” And, holding on to the boy 
with one hand, he moved gingerly away, digging his 
heels deep in the cliffside as he did so to get a purchase. 
Once, twice, nay, thrice he tried to catch the rope, and 
at last did so; but the strain of holding the boy at the 
same time that he reached out for it was terrible, and 


The Guardians of the Coast 199 

the soft earth gave way more than once, threatening to 
send the pair of them hurtling below. 

So far, so good. The next task was to fasten the 
boy on the rope. Once again footholds had to be dug 
in the cliff— deep holes that would not give way beneath 
his weight as he laboured. Adept at knotting, accus- 
tomed to work of this kind. Hunter soon had the boy 
fast in the rope. And then : 

“ Lower away I ” he cried ; and the coastguards let 
the rope out inch by inch, while the rescuer steadied 
it, and kept it from swinging round and round. 

“ Easy ! ” he yelled, as clods of earth and great 
stones, dislodged by the rope as it slid over the edge, 
came tumbling about his ears, threatening to knock 
him from his perch, threatening, too, to smash into the 
boy being lowered to safety. And “easy” it was I 
Those coastguards knew their work. 

At last it was done; the boy was on the beach, 
thoroughly shaken, dreadfully scared, but safe, thanks 
to the pluck of the lighthouseman, who was soon hauled 
to the top, and, as he told me, “went indoors and forgot 
all about it ” until later he received a letter from the 
secretary to the Carnegie Hero Fund Trustees, com- 
mending him on his bravery and suitably rewarding 
him, though it goes without saying that his best reward 
was the knowledge that he had been able to save the 
life of the unfortunate youth. 

Even when the sun is shining in a blue sky overhead 
there is an awesome splendour in the majestic rugged- 
ness of the coast about Land’s End ; but when the grey 
fingers of the dawn are creeping into the heavens, and 
the elements are waging a tumultuous war, when waves 
dash with tremendous force upon the rocks, to break 
upon them with a resounding roar, and when some 


200 


The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

unfortunate ship^has been caught in the grip of the 
storm, then the scene is sufficient to strike terror into 
strong hearts. 

Such was the scene on the morning of March 15, 
1914, at five o’clock, when the coastguard at Sennen 
Cove was alarmed to see signals of a vessel in distress. 
Away along the coast could be seen the dark hull of 
a ship, stationary, except when great seas beat upon 
her and shook her from end to end. Ever and anon 
the rockets whizzed into the air, brilliant appeals for 
help. Instantly all was activity; the life-saving 
apparatus and the lifeboat were summoned, and the 
work of rescue had begun. 

Coastguard A. Oddy, of Sennen, was in charge of 
the life-saving apparatus. There was no time to be 
wasted, for the scene of the wreck was four miles away, 
and every minute was precious, for it could not be long 
before the vessel broke in two, hurling her human 
freight to an awful death. 

The wagon was got ready, the horses put in, and 
away went the wagon at top speed. Just as daylight 
was breaking the coastguards reached the point of the 
coast off which the unfortunate ship lay. What a sight 
met their eyes ! The ship, the Swedish barque 
Trifolium, had been taken up by the waves and hurled 
ashore as though she had been but a shuttlecock. She 
was held fast by the rocks, with a boiling sea around 
her, with mountainous waves rearing angry heads, 
which dropped with a staggering shock and a thun- 
derous roar upon the deck, long since deserted by the 
crew. To have remained there would have been to 
court death, for no man could keep a footing on that 
sloping deck, swept every minute by heavy seas. 

So to the rigging they fled, scrambling up in frenzied 
haste, and hanging on like grim death, watching, wait- 



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The Guardians of the Coast 201 

ing for some answer out of the darkness to their appeals 
for help. As they saw the life-savers pull up upon the 
shore they raised a faint cheer. They were numbed, 
wet to the skin ; they had been staring death in the face 
for what had seemed an eternity; and now help was at 
hand. Men would cheer then, even if it were with their 
last breath I 

Oddy and his companions immediately set to work 
to rescue those seven luckless men. The tackle was got 
out, the rocket apparatus fixed up, and the next instant 
a rocket went speeding away across the tumult of the 
waters, carrying a lifeline. It went right over the vessel, 
as also did a second one that was fired; but, though 
the lines were across their ship, the men in the rigging 
dared not leave their hold, precarious though it was, to 
fix the lifelines, by means of which they could have been 
hauled ashore. To have left the rigging for the deck 
would have been fatal. The avalanche of water that fell 
upon the ship, and swirled away every loosened thing, 
was too terrifying to face ; certain and awful death lay 
that way. 

So, with help so near, the sailors clung to the 
rigging, wide-eyed, anxious-faced, wondering what 
could be done, what would happen. Very soon they 
realised that whether they jumped or not, there was 
nothing but death before them, for the ship, buffeted 
by the waves, rolled dangerously on the rocks, and 
seemed as if about to heel over. 

One man, taking his fate in his hands, watched his 
opportunity, and, fully dressed in oilskins as he was, 
suddenly let go of the rigging and jumped. Luckily he 
jumped wide enough, and plunged into the boiling surf 
below; had he fallen on to the deck he would have 
been smashed to pieces. His friends in the rigging 
gasped, staggered at the risk he took; the watchers on 


202 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

the shore shuddered as they saw him disappear beneath 
the waters; but all heaved a sigh of relief when they 
saw him reaappear and begin to battle with the seas. 
He was making for one of the lifelines. 

Cumbered with his oilskins, weighed down by his 
heavy sea-boots, the man struck out boldly for the line. 
Yard by yard he drew nearer to it, and it seemed that 
he would reach it; then he was caught upon the crest 
of a wave, was flung high, dropped low, and the line 
was as far away as ever I Yet once again he made for 
it, and, after a terrific fight, he managed to grasp the 
line. Staying awhile to take breath and gather his 
strength for the final struggle, he turned towards the 
shore, and began to haul himself along by means of the 
rope. The men in the rigging watched and waited; 
it meant much to them, this fight with the sea, for if 
their comrade won through, they might do so as well. 
The rescuers on shore stood to their work, waiting for 
the man to come nearer in, and ready to plunge to his 
assistance, if necessary. 

Yard by yard he drew nearer, and the coastguard 
could see that he was almost at the last gasp ; it was a 
case of going to his help. Instantly Coastguard Oddy 
answered the call of duty. With neither lifeline nor 
lifebuoy he went into the boiling sea. By a stroke of 
luck he missed the hidden rocks, on which he might 
have been pounded to death, and in a few moments 
reached the now drowning man, whom he seized with 
a strong hand, and snatched from the maw of the sea 
in the very nick of time. Then he set out to the shore 
with his burden. It was, indeed, a fight for life, the 
struggle of a brave man with the force of a mighty sea, 
which, as though taunting him, let him get within an 
ace of safety, and then flung him back into the angry 
cauldron of the deep. Foiled, but by no means beaten. 


203 


The Guardians of the Coast 

Oddy once more set his teeth and struck out for the 
shore, still holding his precious burden. On and on 
he went, and then back again, only to push forward 
with more determination ; and the coastguard fought 
his fight to such good purpose that at last he was again 
near the shore^ found a footing, drew himself up, and 
proceeded to drag the helpless man after him. 

But in the moment of his victory the angry foe, as 
if to rob him of this life won from the jaws of death, 
returned to the fray ; a mighty wave swooped down upon 
him, there was a noise as though heaven and earth had 
met as the wave fell in a thunderous roar upon the rocks, 
the sailor was wrenched from Oddy’s grasp, and he 
himself flung heavily on to the rocks. 

He had tried valiantly — but he had failed ! So said 
the men who watched him in his fight for a fellow-man’s 
life. They saw him now, unable to move, his legs 
jammed between rocks so that he could not free them. 
It seemed but a matter of minutes ere he should be 
sacrificed on the altar of heroism. 

Oddy strained every effort to free himself. Even in 
that moment of peril he wondered what had happened 
to the sailor, and realised that unless something almost 
miraculous happened the end had come. There was no 
fear of death, only the thought of having failed in what 
he had so bravely set out to do. And for it all to end 
like this I 

Then the miracle happened. The very sea that had 
conquered him set him free 1 Wave after wave had 
broken over him, and presently one of greater volume 
than any of the others hit him with such force that 
it did for him what he himself had tried so vainly to do; 
it lifted him out of the imprisoning rocks. He was free ! 
Flung face downwards on the rocks, Oddy felt the sea 
rushing over him, and as the force of it spent itself 


204 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

he got upon his feet, and, counting not the danger, went 
back for the drowning man. 

He found him — whether alive or dead he knew not — 
but without loss of time struck out with him for the 
shore, and, after another stern fight, succeeded in 
getting him into safety — ^alive. It had all been worth 
while I 

Meanwhile, the men on the Trifolium had been 
watching anxiously and hopelessly, for it seemed to 
them that it was useless to expect to be saved. But as 
soon as they saw their comrade safely ashore they took 
heart. If it were possible to save him, then they might 
all be saved. A second man plunged boldly into the 
surf, seized a lifeline, and hauled himself within reach 
of the shore. Several of the coastguards pluckily went 
to his assistance and got him out. 

Before the other five men on the vessel had time to 
follow the example of their comrades the sea had com- 
pleted its fell work. It pounded upon the hapless ship, 
wrenched her plates apart, battered her sides and tore 
great holes in her. Held fast as she was by the cruel 
rocks, there was but one end to her — she broke her back. 
The great iron vessel parted amidships as though she 
had been a toy, and in that instant, with death all around 
them, the five men in the rigging jumped. They were 
in the nick of time ; another minute, and they would have 
been crashed to death with the wreck of what was once 
a proud vessel. Three of them found lifelines, and were 
hauled towards the shore ; and once again Oddy plunged 
into the surf and succeeded in bringing one of them to 
safety, while in the case of the others, Oddy and two 
other life-savers joined efforts and managed to rescue 
them. The remaining two men who had been on the 
ship unfortunately died; one was killed by a falling 
mast, the other was drowned, and though he was got 


The Guardians of the Coast 205 

ashore, and artificial respiration was used for nearly 
four hours, it was all in vain; death had claimed him. 

For seven hours the rescuers had watched and 
worked, and had not worked in vain ; and when Lieu- 
tenant A. S. Chambers, R.N., the divisional officer, 
arrived on the scene, he had the gratification of know- 
ing that, although he had not been present, his men 
had done their duty nobly. 


GREAT NAVAL DISASTERS 

The Loss of the Formidable and the Victoria 



OU never know when anything may happen,” 


A wrote Captain Noel Loxley, of H.M.S. Formid- 
able a day or so before 1915 elbowed 1914 into the past; 
and before the New Year was much more than an hour 
old H.M.S. Formidable was holed by a German torpedo, 
and Loxley and a gallant band of noble sailors died 
like heroes for their king and country. 

The Formidable left Sheerness on December 31 with 
a crew of 750 men, all in high spirits, to keep vigil on 
the Channel. At 1.30 next morning she was steaming 
at about eighteen knots, fighting her way through a 
south-westerly gale, a bright moon shining overhead 
when not obscured by thin clouds that sifted a drizzly 
rain upon her as she drove at the high seas. 

Suddenly, above the howl of the wind and the 
thump of the engines, there was the report of a thun- 
derous explosion on the starboard bow. The ship 
seemed to shiver, then reel. Down in the stokeholds 
men looked at each other in wonder; like the noise of 
a distant gun the sound came to them, and they thought, 
and hoped, that it meant an engagement with the enemy. 
Then again, from port, this time, there came another 
of those muffled reports — so near that they knew some- 
thing had hit their ship. 

“Torpedoed!” said one. “By Heaven, they’ve got 


206 


Great Naval Disasters 207 

And up on the bridge, standing there with his 
commander, Ballard, Captain Loxley also muttered 
“Torpedoed!” Its periscope hidden by the darkness 
and the swelling of the seas, a German submarine had 
crept up within striking distance, had launched her 
two death-tubes, seen them take effect, and then slunk 
away into the night. 

Immediately he realised what had happened, Loxley, 
as calm as though he were at practice, ordered the water- 
tight doors to be closed and the men to be piped to 
collision quarters. Up on to the deck the startled men 
swarmed — startled men, truly, but calm — men who could 
stand at attention in the face of death and laugh and 
joke about “A fine New Year’s gift for us, this ! ” Men 
who could cry as they stood naked and shivering on the 
deck, “Here we are again! Undress uniform — swim- 
ming costume ! ” Men, too, who could enter into the 
spirit of the captain on the bridge, who could signal to 
another ship in the neighbourhood : 

“ Keep off ! Submarines are about ! ” 

Loxley knew what might happen to that ship if she 
stood by, as he had no doubt her officers would be 
prompted to do. Only a month or so before three British 
cruisers had been sunk in the North Sea, two of them 
through standing by to help the other. The Admiralty 
had issued an order that in such circumstances ships 
were not to attempt rescue work, but, as if to make 
assurance doubly sure, Loxley had given his signal ; he 
wanted no risks to be run ; he and his men were willing 
to take their chance of life and death without bringing 
others into danger. It is the spirit of the British Navy. 

But if he would not allow others to help them, he 
used all his efforts to save his crew. There was no 
hope for the Formidable, he knew, and she would have 
to be abandoned. She was listing to starboard already. 


2o 8 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

“Out pinnaces and the launch ! ” was the order, and 
while the boat crews worked to carry it out there came 
another : “ ’Way barges i and 2 ! ’’ Lieutenant Sim- 
monds superintended the lowering of the boats, and by 
his fine work earned Loxley’s encomium, “Well done, 
Simmonds.’’ 

Into one boat there scrambled seventy or eighty men, 
and she got away from the starboard side; soon after a 
second boat, with seventy men, pushed off from the port 
side, and, acting on instructions, she remained near the 
sinking ship for about an hour. All this time the gale 
had been blowing fiercely, and mountainous seas made 
the work of hoisting away the boats anything but easy. 
It was, indeed, found impossible to lower further boats, 
because the ship listed so much that only the starboard 
boats could be hauled out. One barge which they tried 
to launch slipped in the davits, and hurled her crew of 
sixty men into the water below. Dozens of men leapt 
overboard and swam to the two successfully lowered 
boats, and the captain, thinking of others all the time, 
told the boats to stand by and try to pick them up. The 
darkness, however, prevented this being done. 

Meanwhile, on the Formidable was a strange scene. 
On the deck stood lines of men, naked many of them, 
calm all of them, puffing away at cigarettes or passing 
along a smoke to a comrade who had not brought his up 
from below. From somewhere there came the sound of 
a piano; a man sat playing breezy tunes to cheer his 
comrades in the face of death. In the stokeholds be- 
grimed heroes stuck to their posts until, with a lurch, 
the ship knocked them off their feet and sent the fires 
rushing out at them ; heroes who, when the word came, 
raked out the fires, while elsewhere engineers shut off 
the steam — all so that, when the ship sank, there should 
be no explosion. 


Great Naval Disasters 209 

Not a man lost his head. Their example was pacing 
the bridge, smoking, just as though the ship was riding 
in harbour with anchors down. “Steady, men; it’s all 
right!” he cried to them. “Be British! There’s life 
left in the old ship yet ! ” 

But there was not much life; listing, she gave a 
sudden plunge, and all knew that it was the end. 

“ Every man for himself ! ” came the order ; and those 
that could jumped as she took her final plunge. About 
half the company got clear of her; but the two boats 
could not take many, and in addition to those in the 
boats only seventy were saved — by a light cruiser which 
later came upon the scene. 

Loxley went down with his ship, as did hundreds 
of the men, standing in line, saluting the Old Jack for 
the last time. “The last impression on my mind,” said 
a survivor, “was of a long line of saluting hgures dis- 
appearing below the skyline.” 

For the men in the two boats there now began an 
anxious time. Many of them had no clothes beyond 
vests and pants — some none at all, and these had to be 
wrapped in the few blankets that were in the boats. The 
night was bitterly cold, the gale was blowing its hardest, 
the sea was running high. The first boat that put off 
found her difficulties at once; she shipped water by 
the ton, and the men had to improvise bailers. Those 
who had boots on took them off, and used these ; a 
blanket, held at each corner by a sailor, was also brought 
into play for the purpose; caps and coats, too — every 
man doing something to clear the boat of water. For 
hours they toiled, expecting every minute to be their 
last. All through the night, till early morning, they 
drifted whither the waves would take them, and when 
dawn came they found themselves out of sight of land, 
with never a ship in view. 


o 


210 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

During the night they sang the modern warriors’ 
song, “Tipperary,” till they grew tired even of that; 
and the daylight brought them no relief from the 
monotony, till, about nine o’clock, their hearts gave a 
great leap. A liner appeared on the horizon. Shouting 
lustily, they hoisted a blanket on an oar and waved it 
madly, seeking to attract attention ; but the liner changed 
her course and dipped over the horizon, leaving them to 
the waste of waters. 

This hope of being taken up by a passing ship was 
renewed no less than eleven times during the day, each 
time to be dashed to the ground ; and one survivor later 
said that he didn’t think much of the look-out on those 
ships. 

As the day progressed the gale became stronger, and 
the boat was pitching and rolling, swinging high upon 
the crest of a wave, now racing down into the trough, 
the men becoming drenched through again and again, 
those who were nearly naked suffering extreme agony. 
No less than nine of them died of exposure. 

At about one o’clock land was sighted; but when 
the crew, pulling sixteen oars, tried to make it, they 
found that they could not cope with the strong tide 
that was running. Darkness came, and found them still 
adrift. Then their eyes were gladdened by the sight of 
two red lights gleaming in the distance, and Leading 
Seaman Carroll, who had been the life and soul of the 
party, wielded his oar, with which he had all along been 
steering, and kept the boat headed for the lights of hope. 
Fortunately for them, the wind and tide were now with 
them; otherwise, so exhausted were they, never would 
they have made the haven — for haven it was. They 
heard the sound of breakers, saw in the shimmering 
moonlight the white foam of the water, pulled like mad 
to the “Pull, boys, pull I ” of Petty-Officer Bing, and 


2II 


Great Naval Disasters 

after seven miles of stiff rowing were caught in a mighty 
wave that carried them straight to the beach at Lyme 
Regis, where very soon crowds of people gathered to 
give them help and drag them ashore, for they were too 
exhausted to help themselves. They had been adrift 
twenty-two hours. 

It is time now to return to the second boat, which, 
after having picked up as many swimming men as 
possible, had to get away from the Formidable, lest she 
be dashed into her side by the raging sea. The story 
of the sufferings of the men in her is much the same as 
the others; but in this case nearly all the oars were 
smashed and the boat had a hole stove in her side. One 
of the men, whipping off his pants, stuffed them into the 
gap, and then sat there to keep them from being washed 
away. The little craft filled with water time and time 
again, and they bailed her out as fast as they could. 

About nine o’clock in the morning someone noticed 
a large fishing smack to windward, and an oar was 
hoisted, with a black scarf on it as a signal of distress. 
It was seen by John Clark, third hand on the smack 
Providence (Captain Pillar, Brixham), and he immedi- 
ately told the captain and his comrades, the second hand, 
Dan Taylor, the cook, and Pillar, the boy. Instantly 
they fell to work, set the storm jib, shook out a reef in 
the mainsail, and stood after the boat, which by this time 
had drifted far away, and was continually hidden by the 
heavy seas. Through the now blinding rain the smack 
pushed, and, coming near, found that it was impossible 
to get close enough on the present tack to do any good. 
Captain Pillar therefore decided to take a desperate 
chance; he would gybe the boat— that is, swing all 
her sails over violently — and get upon the other tack, 
which would put him in a much better position to effect 
the rescue of the men. 


212 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

This was done successfully; and then the fishermen 
tried to get a rope to the boat. Three times they failed, 
but at the fourth attempt the rope pitched into the boat, 
where it was made fast, the other end being round the 
capstan of the smack. Then, working his vessel in a 
manner that won the praise of every sailor there. Pillar 
hauled the boat to a berth at the stern, and eventually 
got her to leeward. 

Once alongside. Pillar gave the word, and the sailors 
began to jump aboard the smack. It took half an hour 
to get that bunch of men off, so difficult was the work 
as a result of the gale ; over thirty feet the waves mounted 
sometimes, and many a man wellnigh tumbled into the 
sea, from which his chance of rescue would have been 
small. 

When all were safe on board the Providence, Captain 
Pillar turned her about and made for Brixham, his men 
meanwhile attending to the comforts of the sailors, who 
were exhausted and frozen to the bone. Hot coffee and 
food were served out, and never did men enjoy a meal 
as they did on board the Providence on that January 
afternoon. Near Brixham the Providence fell in with 
the Dencade, which took her in tow and brought her into 
Brixham, where the people on the wharves heard the 
lusty voices of men singing “Auld Lang Syne,” as 
though for hours they had not been adrift, helpless, 
hopeless, as though they had never felt the shock as the 
Formidable received her fatal wound, as though they 
had never stood face to face with death. 

It is the cheery fortitude of the British Jack Tar that 
has helped old England to the command of the sea; and 
it is such men as Captain Pillar and his gallant crew 
who reveal the courage that lives in the hearts of men 
whose w’ork keeps them in the field of peace — where as 
great victories are won as on the field of battle. 


213 


Great Naval Disasters 

While, during war, great disasters such as that of the 
Formidable are to be expected, when the wings of the 
Angel of Peace are spread the shock of a catastrophe 
is infinitely greater, because it comes when there seems 
to be no reason why it should. Such was the case of 
the loss of the Victoria battleship in June, 1893. A 
steel-armoured turret-ship of 10,470 tons and 1,400 horse- 
power, 39 guns and 8 torpedo-tubes, she was the flagship 
of Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon, commanding the 
Mediterranean squadron, which, in addition to the 
Victoria, consisted of twelve other vessels, including the 
Camperdo'vm, the ship which rammed her. 

The squadron was steaming line abreast, bound from 
Beyrout for Tripoli, and going at eight knots an hour, 
when the admiral, calling his staff in, decided to form 
the squadron in two columns ahead, six cables’ length 
(1,200 yards) apart, the course to be later on reversed by 
the lines turning inwards. Staff-Commander Hawkins- 
Smith pointed out that, as the turning circles of the 
Victoria and the Camper down (the latter leading the port 
column) were six hundred yards (or three cables’ length), 
the inward turn would involve a collision between this 
vessel and the Victoria, which was leading the star- 
board column. 

“It will require at least eight cables, sir,” said 
Hawkins-Smith, to which Tryon replied, after a 
moment’s thought : 

“Yes, it shall be eight.” 

The staff-commander left the cabin ; and then the 
admiral gave instructions to his flag-lieutenant to signal 
the order for the manoeuvre he had in mind — to line 
ahead at six cables apart, Tryon had evidently changed 
his mind. 

On board the Victoria several officers approached the 
admiral, and queried him on the matter, pointing out 


214 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

that he had agreed that eight cables’ length was wanted. 
But he adhered to his command, saying; “That’s all 
right ; leave it at six cables.” 

So the fatal order fluttered in the breeze. 

Rear-Admiral Markham, on the Camperdown, was 
staggered. 

“It is impossible!” he exclaimed. “It is an im- 
practicable manoeuvre ! ” and did not answer back, thus 
giving the Victoria to understand that he had not 
grasped the signal. “It’s all right,” he said to Captain 
Johnstone. “Don’t do anything. I have not answered 
the signal.” And then gave instructions for the flag- 
lieutenant to ask for fuller instructions. 

Meanwhile, on the Victoria other signals were being 
hoisted, asking Markham why he was not obeying 
orders, and reproving him for it. The rear-admiral, 
knowing it was his duty to obey, decided to do so, 
thinking that Tryon must be intending to make a wider 
circle, and so go outside the Camperdown* s division. 

The two ships therefore turned inwards, Markham 
and his officers watching the Victoria closely to see what 
she would do. On the flagship, too, officers were dis- 
cussing the movement, and Captain Bourke asked Tryon 
whether it would not be as well to do something to avoid 
the collision he saw was inevitable. It was a case for 
haste, he knew, and he had to repeat his question 
hurriedly; “May I go astern full speed with the port 
screw ? ” 

“Yes,” said Tryon at last, and Bourke gave the 
order. But it was too late; three minutes and a half 
after the two ships had turned inwards the Camperdown, 
although her engines had been reversed, crashed into 
the starboard bow of the Victoria, hitting her about 
twenty feet before the turrent and forcing her way in 
almost to the centre line. 


Great Naval Disasters 215 

Instantly excitement reigned on the Victoria; but the 
crew, never losing their heads, rushed to carry out the 
orders which were now flung hither and thither : 

“ Close the water-tight doors ! ** 

“Out collision mats ! ” 

“All hands on deck 1 ” 

In rapid succession the orders came; the doors were 
shut tight, the mats were hung over the side, where, 
so great was the gap left when the Camper down backe( 
away, the water rushed in in torrents. Captain Bourke. 
having visited the engine-rooms to see that all that was 
possible had been done, rushed up on deck, and there 
found that the Victoria had a heavy list to starboard. 
On the deck all the sick men and the prisoners had been 
brought up in readiness, and all hands except the 
engineers were there, too. 

All this time the only thought in every man’s mind 
had been to save the ship ; actually, no one imagined 
that the fine vessel would presently make a final plunge 
and disappear. Tryon had, indeed, signalled to the 
other ships not to send the boats which were being 
lowered. Having received the report that it was 
thought the Victoria could keep afloat some time, Tryon 
consented to her being steered for land. But the helm 
refused to work. 

The admiral now signalled : “ Keep boats in readi- 
ness; but do not send them.” And then, turning to an 
officer, said : “It is my fault — entirely my fault I ” 

The seriousness of the position was now breaking 
upon him, though even then he did not realise how near 
the end was. The crew worked hard but orderly, hoist- 
ing out the boats, or doing whatever they were told, 
while down below the engineers and stokers kept at their 
posts, albeit they knew that they stood little chance if 
the ship dived beneath the surface. 


2i 6 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

Presently the men were drawn up on deck, four deep, 
calm, cool, facing death without a tremor or sign of 
panic, which would have been calamitous. 

“Steady, men, steady!” cried the chaplain, the 
Rev. Samuel Morris; and steady they were, till Tryon, 
seeing that all hope was gone, signalled for boats to be 
sent, and gave orders for every man to look after himself. 

“Jump, men, jump I ” was the command; and they 
rushed to the side, ready to fling themselves overboard. 
As they did so the great ship turned turtle, and men 
went tumbling head first into the sea, down the bottom 
of the ship as she dived, her port screw racing through 
the air. 

The scene that followed beggars description ; but the 
following extract is from a letter written to the Times by 
a midshipman who was on one of the other ships. He 
was sent off in a boat to rescue the struggling men in 
the water. 

“We could see all the men jumping overboard,” he 
wrote. “She continued heeling over, and it was simply 
agonising to watch the wretched men struggling out of 
the ports over the ship’s bottom in masses. All this, of 
course, happened in less time than it takes to write. You 
could see the poor men who, in their hurry to jump over, 
jumped on to the screw being cut to pieces as it re- 
volved. She heeled right over, the water rushing in 
through her funnels. A great explosion of steam rose ; 
she turned right over, and you could see all the men 
eagerly endeavouring to crawl over her bottom, when, 
with a plunge, she went down bows first. We could 
see her stern rise right out of the water and plunge down, 
the screws still revolving. It was simply a dreadful 
sight. We could not realise it. Personally, I was away 
in my boat, pulling as hard as we could to the scene 
of the disaster. . . . After pulling up and down for two 



“ It was simply agonising to watch the wretched men struggling over the 
ship’s bottom in masses” {see page 216) 


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Great Naval Disasters 217 

hours, we reorganised the fleet, leaving two ships on the 
scene of the disaster; and, making for Tripoli, anchored 
for the night. No one can realise the dreadful nature of 
the accident. 

“However, dropping the Victoria for a minute, we 
must turn to the Camperdown, She appeared to be in a 
very bad way. Her bow was sinking gradually, and I 
must say at the time I thought it quite on the cards 
that she might be lost also; but, thanks to the in- 
domitable way in which the crew worked, they managed 
to check the inrush by means of the collision mat and 
water-tight doors. All last night, however, they were 
working hard to keep her afloat. 

“You can imagine our feelings — the flagship sunk 
with nearly all hands, the other flagship anchored in a 
sinking condition. We have a lot of the survivors of 
the Victoria on board, but their accounts vary greatly. 

. . . Anyhow, what is quite certain is that the admiral 
did not realise the gravity of his situation, or else he 
would have abandoned the ship at once, instead of trying 
to save her. The discipline was magnificent. Not 
until the order was given did a single man jump over- 
board. 

“The last thing that was seen was the admiral re- 
fusing to try to save himself, whilst his coxswain was 
entreating him to go. Another instance of pluck was 
exhibited by the boatswain of signals, who was making 
a general semaphore until the water washed him away. 
Unfortunately the poor chap was drowned. Many of the 
survivors are in a dreadful state of mental prostration. 
Most people say that Admiral Markham should have re- 
fused to obey the signal, but I think that Admiral Tryon 
infused so much awe in most of the captains of the fleet 
that few would have disobeyed him. However, he stuck 
to his ship to the last, and went down in her.” 


2i 8 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

Thus was the Victoria lost; less than a quarter of an 
hour after being struck she was lying at the bottom of 
the Mediterranean, Admiral Tryon and 400 gallant 
seamen going with her. 

At the court-martial Captain Bourke was absolved of 
all blame for the loss of the ship, the finding being that 
the disaster was entirely due to Admiral Tryon ’s order 
to turn the two lines sixteen points inward when they 
were only six cables apart. 


INCIDENTS IN THE SLAVE TRADE 

Stories of the Traffic in Human Merchandise 

W E shall not here deal with the history and 
abolition of slavery, because every schoolboy 
knows all about that, and will doubtless be glad to 
have something more exciting. And of excitement 
there is abundance in the annals of slavery. The trade 
was always attended by risks, even before the days 
when it was illegal to ship slaves, for there was ever 
the danger of the negroes breaking loose and running 
amok on the ship ; or, what was perhaps worse, the 
holds of the slavers were often little less than death- 
holes, with fever and cholera rampant. Altogether, it 
was a game with big profits — and mighty big risks, as 
the following story will show : 

It was back in 1769 that the slaver Delight (Captain 
Millroy) was the scene of an uprising of negroes, which 
resulted in a rousing fight and fatal effects to a good 
many aboard. 

About three o’clock one Sunday morning Surgeon 
Boulton and the men with him in the aft-cabin were 
awakened by a chorus of screams and shrieks overhead, 
a rushing of feet, a pandemonium of noise which told 
that something serious was afoot. Boulton slipped out 
of his bunk and dashed towards the captain’s cabin, 
half guessing what was taking place. He reached the 
cabin, and, entering, shook Millroy fiercely to awaken 
him. He had barely succeeded in rousing the captain 
219 


220 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

when a billet of wood came hurtling through the air 
and caught him on the shoulder, and a cutlass pierced 
his neck. Turning, Boulton saw that a couple of 
negroes had, all unseen and unheard, crept below, 
intent on putting the captain hors de combat while 
he was asleep ; and, finding the surgeon interfering with 
their plot, they attacked him in quick time. Millroy, 
now properly aroused, joined forces with Boulton, who 
forgot his own danger in the thought of what was 
happening above, and the pair chased the negroes on 
to the deck, Boulton carrying a pistol and the captain 
a cutlass. 

When they reached deck they found themselves in 
a very inferno. Hundreds of negroes were swarming 
all over the place, some armed with wooden spars, 
others with cutlasses ; and with these weapons they were 
hard at it taking vengeance on their captors. The 
herd of savages flung themselves upon the seamen, 
cutting off legs and arms, mutilating bodies dreadfully, 
their yells making the air ring. Boulton and the cap- 
tain, realising that it was a case for prompt and vigor- 
ous action, hurled themselves into the heaving fight 
with a will. Down went one negro, killed by Millroy’s 
cutlass; then another; while Boulton did all he could. 
But the “all” of these two men was but little, and pre- 
sently Millroy fell to the deck, overpowered by numbers, 
and literally hacked to pieces. Boulton, more fortunate, 
escaped injury, and made a dash for the rigging, up 
which he scrambled till he came to the maintop, where 
he discovered the cook and a boy had already taken 
refuge. 

Perched on their lofty platform, the three looked 
down upon deck, watching as though fascinated the 
drama being enacted before their eyes, seeing the now 
maddened negroes wreaking vengeance on the men who 


Incidents in the Slave Trade 221 

were bearing them from freedom to slavery. The blood- 
lust was upon them, and they searched the ship to take 
their fill. 

Suddenly the watchers saw two men come up from 
below and make a rush across the deck to the rigging. 
Like lightning the negroes dashed after them, and one 
man was brought to deck by a dozen billets flung at 
him, and his body was cut to pieces. The second man, 
more fortunate, managed to reach the rigging, and 
clambered up like a monkey. 

The negroes, having satisfied themselves that they 
had accounted for all the crew with the exception of 
those in the maintop, whom they decided to deal with 
presently, ransacked the ship, seeking arms ; and mean- 
while Boulton, knowing that safety depended upon 
weapons, went on a tour of exploration. He wormed 
his way into the foretop to see what might be there, 
and luckily found a knife, with which he set out to 
return to the maintop. On the way the negroes saw 
him, and began to pelt him with billets of wood, all 
of which missed, however; so that Boulton reached his 
comrades safely. The one dread in the minds of the 
four survivors was that the negroes would find the 
arms-chest, in which case it seemed to them hopeless 
to expect to escape. While the slaves remained armed 
only with wooden spars and cutlasses, Boulton did not 
feel particularly anxious, knowing that he and his com- 
panions would be able to tackle any who dared to 
ascend the rigging to try and get them down. One 
thing that kept him hopeful was the fact that another 
slaver, the Apollo, was almost within hailing distance, 
and the Delight, unsteered and sails untrimmed, was 
rapidly drifting towards her, which would make the 
men on the Apollo aware that something had happened. 
But Boulton’s luck was out. The negroes found the 


222 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

arms-chest, and, breaking it open, armed themselves 
with muskets, and set to work in earnest to put the 
survivors out of action. 

Shot after shot sang by the maintop, and one of 
the men there, fearing that he would be killed if he 
stayed, and might be saved if he trusted himself to the 
mercy of the negroes, like a madman descended to the 
deck. Barely had his foot touched it when a negro 
fell upon him with an axe and split his head in two; 
and a dozen pairs of hands seized him and pitched him 
overboard to the sharks which were following the ship, 
their appetites whetted by the feasts already given them 
by the negroes. 

While this was going on, other slaves were still 
shooting away at the maintop, fruitlessly; and Boulton 
was calling madly on the Apollo, now not far away. 
Presently the captain of the other vessel, realising what 
was afoot, gave the word, and a broadside hurtled across 
the deck of the Delight, in the hope of frightening the 
slaves. They seemed to take little notice of this, how- 
ever, and Boulton began to fear that all was over, 
especially as the negroes, seeing that they could not 
hit the men in the maintop, ceased fire, and a giant 
black, cutlass in one hand and a pistol in the other, 
sprang into the rigging, bent, apparently, on storming 
the position. Boulton waited calmly. He had no 
weapons but his knife and a quart bottle; but he felt 
that he was in a good position to meet an attack. Pre- 
sently the negro’s head appeared above the platform, 
and then — whack! The bottle fell upon it with a 
sickening thud, the black lost his hold, and went 
hurtling into the sea. 

Meanwhile, the Apollo was firing at the Delight, 
and the latter was returning the fire as well as it could, 
the negroes evidently knowing that to give in was to 


Incidents in the Slave Trade 223 

court disaster, and to lose what they had stood in a 
fair way to gaining. For four hours they fought the 
Apollo, and at the same time kept up their fusillade on 
the maintop. 

Then came the end. Not because the negroes were 
not able to keep up any longer, but because a shot 
from the Apollo fell into a barrel of gunpowder and 
exploded it, with the result that the Delight took fire, 
and the slaves could not cope with the flames and their 
enemy at the same time. The revolt fizzled out as 
quickly as it had arisen. While the negroes rushed 
about seeking to put out the fire, Boulton, taking 
his life in his hands, descended to the deck, at the 
same time that a boat set out from the Apollo with 
a crew to tackle the flames and the negroes, who, 
filled with consternation, now stood quietly by watch- 
ing the fire-fighters. They were absolutely cowed; 
they had made their bid for freedom, and had failed, 
and they knew it. They allowed themselves to be 
driven below and secured. The result of their revolt 
was that nine of the crew of the Delight were butchered, 
one man on the Apollo was killed, and eighteen of the 
negroes found death instead of liberty — perhaps death 
to them was better than freedom ; certainly better than 
the lot of those poor human cattle they left behind them. 

Such incidents as this were of frequent occurrence, 
and the recital of one must suffice. 

After the Abolition Act had been passed, severe 
measures were brought into operation, giving the Navy 
a wide scope — so wide that, even although a vessel had 
no slaves on board, yet, if the naval officers had reason 
to suspect that slaving was her business, they could 
apprehend her. Special ships were fitted out and com- 
missioned to deal with the traffic in the South Atlantic, 
both off Central America and the West Coast of Africa. 


224 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

So effective were the measures taken that the slavers 
resorted to all manner of disguises to turn suspicion 
away from their vessels, which had hitherto been of a 
distinctive kind — long, rakish craft with tall spars, the 
whole effect being one of beauty, and the idea being 
speed. The traders changed all this by having ships 
more after the fashion of the ordinary merchant vessel, 
so that the hunters had a more difficult task in front of 
them. But they worked energetically, and swept the 
seas month after month, on the look-out for the human 
cattle-ships, and, as all the world knows, succeeded in 
clearing them from the seas. 

The subjoined account from the Sierra Leone 
Watchman for November 15, 1846, gives a striking 
picture of the conditions against which the Navy were 
doing such good work. 

The vessel referred to is the Brazilian brigantine 
Paqueta de Rio, captured off Sherbro : 

“The 547 human beings — besides the crew and 
passengers (as they styled themselves), twenty-eight in 
number — were stowed in a vessel of 74 tons. The slaves 
were all stowed together, perfectly naked, with nothing 
on which to rest but the surfaces of the water-casks. 
These were made level by filling in billets of wood, and 
formed the slave-deck. The slaves who were confined in 
the hold — it being utterly impossible for the whole of 
them to remain on deck at one time — were in a profuse 
perspiration, and panting like so many hounds for water. 
The smell on board was dreadful. I was informed that, 
on the officers of the Cygnet boarding the slaver, the 
greater part of the slaves were chained together with 
pieces of chain, which were passed through iron collars 
round their necks ; iron shackles were also secured round 
their legs and arms. After the officers had boarded, 
and the slaves were made to understand they were free. 


Incidents in the Slave Trade 225 

their acclamations were long and loud. They set to 
work, and, with the billets of wood which had hitherto 
formed their bed, knocked off each other’s shackles, 
and threw most of them overboard. There were several 
left, which were shown to me. We will leave it to the 
imagination of your readers what must have been the 
feelings of these poor people when they found they were 
again free — free through the energy and activity of a 
British cruiser. On examining the poor creatures, who 
were principally of the Kosso nation, I found they 
belonged to, and were shipped to, different individuals ; 
they were branded like sheep. Letters were burnt in 
the skin two inches in length. Many of them, from 
the recent period it had been done, were in a state of 
ulceration. Both males and females were marked as 
follows : On the right breast ‘ J ’ ; on the left arm, 
‘P’; over women’s right and left breasts, ‘S’ and 
‘ A ’ ; under the left shoulder, ‘ P ’ ; right breast, ‘ R ’ 
and ‘ R J ’ ; on the right and left breasts, ‘ S S ’ ; and 
on the right and left shoulder, ‘ S S.’ This is the 
same vessel that cleared out from here about three 
weeks previous to her capture for Rio de Janeiro. The 
slaves were all embarked from the slave factories at 
Gallinas, under the notorious Don Luiz, and the vessel 
under way in five hours ; and had there been the 
slightest breeze she would have escaped. Among the 
slaves there were two men belonging to Sierra Leone — 
a man named Peter, once employed by Mr. Elliott, the 
pilot. He stated that he had been employed by a 
Mr. Smith, a Popohman, to go to Sherbro to purchase 
palm-oil, and that whilst pursuing that object he was 
seized and sold by a Sherbro chief named Sherry.” 


p 


A RACE TO SUCCOUR 

An Incident of the United States Revenue Service 

T he records of the revenue men of the United 
States teem with heroic deeds done in the execu- 
tion of their duty. The present story is typical of the 
thrilling determination of men who will not be beaten, 
and incidentally shows a healthy rivalry between the 
revenue men and the lifeboatmen. 

On January ii, 1891, the three-masted schooner 
Ada Barker encountered a terrific storm which played 
shuttlecock with her, and after a fierce conflict pitched 
her on to the Junk of Pork, the euphonious name of a 
large rock near outer Green Island, off the coast of 
Maine. The Junk of Pork rises a sheer fifty feet out 
of the water, and all round it are reefs and boulders, 
a literal death-trap to any unfortunate vessel that should 
get caught there. The Ada Barker, after having her 
sails torn to shreds and her rigging hopelessly en- 
tangled, began to ship water, and though her men 
worked hard and long at the pumps, they could not 
save her; then she was bowled on to the outer reef at 
night; the bottom dropped out of her, and she heeled 
over. To the men on board it seemed that the 
end of all things had come, and they gave themselves 
up for lost. 

As the ship heeled they heard the sound of some- 
thing striking against a rock; then again, as the ship 
rebounded and fell forward once more. Eager to take 
226 



“Though her men worked hard and long at the pumps, they could not save 

her” {see page 226) 






A Race to Succour 227 

the most slender chance of life, they scrambled to the 
side, and saw that the mast was hitting against the 
Junk of Pork. 

“Boys!” cried the captain. “That’s our one 
chance ! ” 

The sailors knew what he meant. They had looked 
about them. To jump into that boiling surf was to 
leap into the jaws of death ; they would be smashed to 
pulp, or drowned like rats. They saw now, however, 
that the rock before them could be reached by scram- 
bling up the mast, which was crashing against it. But 
they must hurry; and hurry they did. Like monkeys 
they swarmed up the mast, caring nothing for torn 
hands nor the flapping canvas, which slashed them like 
whipcords and threatened to knock them off into the 
cauldron below. They fought their elemental fight, and 
one by one six men dropped on to the Junk of Pork; 
and for hours and hours they clung to their precarious 
perch, buffeted by strong winds, swamped by heavy 
seas and crouching in terror as a mountain wave reared 
its head and, as if angry that the men had escaped, 
broke upon them with a thunderous roar. At other 
times they were flung headlong on the rock by a gust 
of wind which howled at them as if seeking to drown 
their voices as they yelled for help, in the hope that 
some ship might be near and hear them through the 
noise of the gale. 

All through the long, dreadful night they remained 
thus, glad to have found even so bleak a haven, but 
wondering whether, after all, they would be rescued. 
Then their eyes were gladdened by the sight of a ship 
away out on the horizon. Rising and falling as the 
still boisterous seas kept up their see-saw motion, she 
was coming in their direction. Would she see them? 
They knew that at the distance the ship was away they 


228 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

could not be visible yet; yet, cold, drenched to the 
skin, almost exhausted by exposure, they stripped them- 
selves of their shirts and waved — waved like madmen, 
fearing they would be passed by. Had they but known 
it, the officer of the watch of the coming boat — the 
United States revenue cutter, of Woodbury — thought 
he could see dark forms on the fiat top of the storm- 
wracked Junk of Pork in a state of frantic activity. 
Levelling his glasses, he soon saw the forms of the six 
men waving the torn and tattered shirts; and he knew 
that some ship had been wrecked during the storm 
which the Woodbury herself had encountered and fought 
sternly against for hours on end since she left Portland. 

It took but a few moments for everyone on the cutter 
to be made aware of the position of things. 

“We’ll make her, boys” said Captain Fengar, who 
was in command. “We’ll have those chaps off the 
Junk of Pork! ” 

“Aye, aye, sir ! ’’ was the chorus; and, with engines 
pounding out every ounce of steam, the cutter pushed 
her nose through the water, fighting hard against the 
storm, which was raging as fiercely as ever. Nearer 
and nearer they drove, whistling anon to encourage the 
stranded mariners, who, weary and exhausted, cried for 
very joy as they realised that they had been seen and 
that help was coming. Help was coming I Their 
madness of anxiety gave way to a delirium of joy. Then 
their hearts sank into an abyss of despair. 

The cutter was very near to them now, but the sea 
was too rough for her to venture close to the rocks; 
the reefs were one cauldron of boiling surf, and the 
stranded men knew that no boat from the cutter could 
hope to live in such a sea, or hope to escape destruction 
on the reefs if she ventured near. 

Help had come — and had proved helpless ! 


229 


A Race to Succour 

They threw themselves down upon the rock and 
clutched at the bare surface. They were frenzied. They 
wondered how much longer they could withstand the 
gnawings of hunger, the agonies of thirst; how much 
longer, too, they could retain enough strength to keep 
their footing on the rock-top. They even thought of 
leaving their precious haven and trying to reach the 
wreck of their once proud little ship, where there was 
indeed food and water. But second thoughts showed 
them that certain death lay that way, while there was 
hope that the cutter might be able to get to them. 
They saw that she was hovering about, cruising here 
and there to keep headway with the storm, her whistle 
shrieking out encouragement, and letting them know 
that she was standing by, in the hope that the storm 
would abate and enable them to launch their boats. 

Night came, but the gale still raged, and Captain 
Fengar decided that there was only one way to bring 
about the rescue he was determined to effect, and that 
was to put back to Portland and bring dories with which 
to land on the rock at dawn next day. He could not 
hope to do much good during the night, even if the 
storm eased off somewhat; the danger of the breakers 
was too great. So, whistling across to the wretched 
men on the rock, he let them know that he was going 
away, but would come back, and then save them. 

The first shock of realising that they were to be 
left alone again wellnigh crazed the men ; they felt that 
they would prefer to wait there for death with company 
than wait alone for salvation. But away went the cutter, 
whistling as she went in answer to the wavings of the 
sailors; and as the final scream died away the men 
sank down upon the rock in desolation of despair, with 
nothing but the howling of the wind and the roar of 
the breakers to keep them company. 


230 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

The cutter sped through the night, passing Cape 
Elizabeth on her way, and giving the bearings of the 
wreck to the lifeboat station there. Reaching Portland, 
she took her dories and raced back to the Junk of Pork, 
arriving there an hour after daybreak. The feelings 
of the now almost dead mariners may be better imagined 
than described when they heard the siren of the cutter 
calling to them, telling them of the coming of hope and 
help. They forgot the raging storm, for they knew 
that these men who had come back had brought the 
wherewithal to save them. 

On the cutter the revenue men were busy preparing 
to launch the boats and the small white cutter, when 
the lifeboat from Cape Elizabeth hove in sight. The 
very sight of her acted as an additional spur to them, 
for they regarded this little matter as particularly their 
own, and although they themselves had warned the 
lifeboatman of the wreck they felt that it was their 
duty to effect the rescue. They vowed to themselves 
that they would get the men off the rock. 

“Now, boys,” cried Captain Fengar, “we want to 
get those men off ourselves ! Hustle ! ” 

And they hustled. In the twinkling of an eye as it 
seemed a couple of boats were lowered and the men 
were in their places. 

“You must not fail,” said Fengar as they pushed 
off. “ God bless you ! ” And away they went towards 
the boiling surf, beneath which they knew lurked 
hideous, treacherous rocks. Lieutenant Howland, an 
old whaler, had charge of the first boat, and with him 
went Third Lieutenant Scott and Cadet Van Cott, who 
had entreated the captain to allow him to go. Seamen 
Haskell and Gross manned the second boat. Like 
madmen the Woodbury men pulled, straining every effort 
to win in the race they had set themselves, knowing 


231 


A Race to Succour 

that the Cape Elizabeth lifeboat was sweeping through 
the seas towards the rock. As for the lifeboat, its crew 
were tired, weary with much fighting of the storm. But 
they were game; they realised what the Woodbury men 
were intent on doing, and they themselves determined 
to do their best to beat them in this race for the lives 
of six unfortunate men. It was surely one of the 
queerest contests ever engaged in, and at the back of it 
was but one idea — to win through to the rock and get 
the stranded mariners to safety. 

The first honours went to the Woodbury men; the 
dory manned by Haskell and Gross got there ahead of ' 
all; they swept through a narrow channel between the 
reefs, were wellnigh battered to pieces against the foot 
of the Junk of Pork, hailed the men on top — as though 
they needed hailing ! — and the next instant a man 
leaped clear of the rock and tumbled into the dory, 
which pitched and rolled dangerously at the impact. 
Then, realising that they could not stay there any 
longer, Haskell and Gross turned their dory about and 
made for the channel again; careful steering took her 
safely through, and then, buffeted by the waves, they 
pulled feverishly towards the cutter, where they eventu- 
ally got their man safely aboard. 

Meanwhile, Howland was keeping his men at it ; the 
race now lay between him and the lifeboat, and he meant 
to win. With shouts and heave-ho’s, Howland urged 
his men on ; and on they went, while across the waters 
came the shouts of the lifeboatmen as they bent lustily 
to their task. 

The revenue boat won by a neck ! With a thud she 
hit the breakers just ahead of the lifeboat, shivered, and 
then, lifted up by a giant comber, cleared a submerged 
reef, delved on the other side, and came up almost filled 
with water. Shaking herself as a dog shakes the water 


232 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

from his coat, she righted, and Lieutenant Scott leaped 
boldly into the surf ; but as he did so the undertow took 
the boat and, as he still had hold of her, dragged him 
under water. For a moment his comrades thought him 
gone, but presently he came up, almost frozen, but still 
hanging on to the boat. And the next moment a roller 
caught the boat and pitched her on to a slice of rock. 

Almost simultaneously the lifeboat plunged at the 
breakers. For a second she hesitated. Her men were 
debating whether they should shoot clear or land. They 
saw the revenue men land. Where they could go, there 
could the men of Cape Elizabeth ; and they put the nose 
of their boat at it, heading straight for the rocks. Less 
fortunate than the others, the lifeboat banged into a 
mighty rock, which stove in her bow and rendered her 
unmanageable. 

Instantly the winners of the strange race saw that the 
lifeboat was helpless and in danger; the men on the 
Junk of Pork could wait; they were safe ! The revenue 
men plunged into the surf, waded and swam to the life- 
boat, seized hold of her, and dragged her on to the 
strip of rock. It was all done as in a flash ; hesitation 
would have meant disaster. But it was done, and 
the rivals stood together at the foot of the Junk of 
Pork. Then, resting awhile from their herculean 
labours, they set about the rescue of the stranded 
mariners, who were very soon in the revenue boat, and 
being rowed across to the Woodbury cutter, which, when 
all was done, steamed back to Portland, after forty hours 
of hard fighting for the rescue of half a dozen men; 
forty hours well spent, too. 


A TRAGEDY OF THE SOUTH POLE 

The Thrilling Story of Scott’s Expedition to the Antarctic 

T he age-old dreartjs of hundreds of men have been 
realised; the ends of the earth have yielded up 
their secrets — the Poles have been discovered. Peary 
to the North, Amundsen and Scott to the South, hardy 
adventurers all, with the wanderlust in their souls and 
science as their beckoner — these men went forth and 
wrested from the ice-bound regions something of what 
had been refused to the scores of men preceding them ; 
some of whom had come back, weak, despondent, while 
others left their bones as silent witnesses to their noble 
failure to achieve what they set out for. 

Of all the many expeditions which have set forth to 
the Polar regions, none was more tragic than that 
commanded by Captain Robert F. Scott. In practically 
the hour of his triumph he failed, because, no matter 
how efficient an organisation, no matter how far-sighted 
policy and arrangements may be, there is always the 
uncertain human element; there comes the point when 
human endurance can stand out no longer, when the 
struggle against the titan forces of Nature cannot be 
kept up. And then there is failure, though often a 
splendid failure. 

Such was that of Captain Scott ; he reached the goal 
he had aimed at for many years only to find that he 
had been forestalled by a month, and then, overtaken 
by unexpected bad weather, he and the men with him 

233 


234 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

had to give up the struggle when within eleven miles of 
just one thing they stood in need of — fuel with which 
to cook the hot meals that meant life. The story is one 
that makes the blood course through the veins, makes 
the heart glow, makes the head bow in honour; be- 
cause it is a story of matchless bravery, heroic fortitude 
and noble effort. 

The Terra Nova, Scott’s ship, carried a complement 
of sixty men, each one of them picked because of his 
efficiency, each one having his allotted work. Geologists 
and grooms, physicist and photographers, meteorolo- 
gists and motor-engineer, surgeons and ski-expert and 
seamen, men to care for dogs, and men to cook food — 
a civilised community of efficient, well-found, keen, 
and high-idealed men. It was, in fact, the best-equipped 
Polar expedition ever sent forth. Scott went out not 
merely to discover the South Pole, but also to gather 
data that should elucidate many problems of science. 
He took with him all the apparatus that would be 
necessary for this purpose, and when the Terra Nova 
left New Zealand, on November 26, 1910, there seemed 
good reason for the conviction that success must attend 
the expedition. 

The voyage out to the Polar Sea was uneventful, 
except that early in December a great storm arose, 
and called for good seamanship to keep the vessel 
going; and even then she was very badly knocked 
about. She made a good deal of water, and the seamen 
had to pump hard and long; but at last, under steam 
and sail, the Terra Nova came through safely, and was 
able to go forward again, and by December 9 was in 
the ice-pack, which was that year much farther north 
than was expected. This held them up so that they could 
not go in the direction they wanted to, and had to drift 
where the pack would take them — northwards. Christ- 


A Tragedy of the South Pole 235 

mas Day found them still in the pack, and they cele- 
brated the festivity in the good old English style. By 
the 30th they were out of the pack, and set off for Cape 
Crozier, the end of the Great Ice Barrier, where they had 
decided to fix their winter quarters. They could not get 
there, however, and they had to proceed to Cape Royds, 
passing along an ice-clad coast which showed no likely 
landing-place. Cape Royds was also inaccessible owing 
to the ice, and the ship was worked to the Skuary Cape, 
renamed Cape Evans, in the McMurdo Sound. 

A landing was effected, and for a week the explorers 
worked like niggers getting stores ashore, disembarking 
ponies and dogs, unloading sledges, and the hundred 
and one other things necessary to success. The hut, 
which was brought over in pieces, was also taken ashore, 
a suitable site for it cleared, and the carpenters began 
erecting it. 

During these early days misfortune fell upon them. 
One of their three motor-sledges, upon which great 
hopes were built, slipped through the ice and was lost. 

By January 14 the station was almost finished, and 
Captain Scott went on a sledge trip to Hut Point, some 
miles to the west. Here Scott had wintered on his 
first expedition, which set out from England in 1901. 
In this his new expedition the hut was to be used for 
some of the party, and telephonic communication was 
installed. In due course the station was completed; 
there is no need for us to go into all the details of the 
hard work, or the exercising of animals and men, but a 
short description of this house on the ice may be of 
interest. It was a wooden structure, 50 feet long by 
25 feet wide and nine feet to the eaves. It was divided 
into officers’ and men’s quarters; there was a laboratory 
and dark-room, galley and workshop. Books were 
there, pictures on the walls, stove to keep the right tern- 


236 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

perature. Stables were built on the north side, and a 
store-room on the south. In the hut itself was a pianola 
and a gramophone to wile away the monotony 
of the long winter night. Mr. Ponting, the camera 
artist, had a lantern with him, which was to provide 
vast entertainment in the way of picture-lectures on all 
kinds of subjects. Altogether, everything was as com- 
pact and comfortable as could be wished. 

Naturally, there were various adventures during 
these early days; once the ship just managed to get 
away from the spot where almost immediately after- 
wards a huge berg crashed down, only a little later on 
the same day to become stranded. Luckily, by much 
hard work, the seamen managed to get her off. 

On January 25 the next piece of work was begun — 
namely, the laying of a depot some hundred miles to- 
wards the south. Both ponies and dogs were used for 
this work, which took nearly a month — the Barrier ice 
was always dangerous — and both the outward and in- 
ward journeys were beset by bad weather, bad surfaces, 
hard work, disappointments and many dangers. Once, 
a party was lost, and found only after they had experi- 
enced much suffering. 

It was not until April 13 that the depot laying party 
returned to the hut, minus some of their animals, which 
had succumbed to the rigours of the climate and the 
stiff work demanded of them. A few days later the 
long winter night set in, and the men had to confine 
themselves to winter quarters to wait until the coming 
of the sun before the main object of their voyage could 
be attempted. The ship had returned to New Zealand 
meanwhile. 

The long winter months were filled up with scien- 
tific studies of the neighbourhood, and evenings were 
occasions for lantern lectures and discussions on all 


A Tragedy of the South Pole 237 

kinds of subjects, including those which concerned the 
expedition. There was plenty of work to do; things 
had to be prepared, as far as was possible then, for the 
final dash ; the animals had to be looked after ; and they 
were a source of trouble, because it was essential that 
they should be kept fit. A winter party was organised 
and sent to Cape Crozier, a journey that took them 
five weeks under “the hardest conditions on record.” It 
was well worth while, for many were the valuable obser- 
vations made. 

Always the scientific aspect of the expedition was 
kept in view ; and when the sun returned a spring jour- 
ney to the west was undertaken, Scott and his little party 
being absent thirteen days, 175 miles being covered in 
that time. 

We now come to the great journey to the Pole — a 
journey of 800 miles. On October 24 the two motor- 
sledges were sent off, after a good deal of trouble, Evans 
and Day in charge of one, and Lashly of the other; 
they were the forerunners of the expedition to the Pole. 
On the 26th, Hut Point rang up to say that the motors 
were in trouble, and Scott and seven men went off to 
see what they could do. They came up with the motors 
about three miles from Hut Point, and found that 
various little things were causing trouble. Eventually, 
these difficulties were overcome, and the sledges started 
off again, and Scott and his party went back to Cape 
Evans to get ready for their own journey south. 

“The future is in the lap of the gods; I can think 
of nothing left undone to deserve success.” 

Thus wrote Captain Scott the night before he set 
out on his last great journey, and reading the remark- 
able journal which he left, one is forced to the conclusion 
that he was right; if ever man deserved success, if ever 
achievement with glory and safety should have been 


238 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

vouchsafed, it should have been to Scott ; but the lap of 
the gods is often a sacrificial altar on which men lay 
down their lives for the sake of great ideals. 

It was on November i that the Southern Party set 
out. It consisted of ten men, in charge of ten ponies 
drawing sledges, and two men leading the dogs which 
were to take the ponies’ places when the latter were 
done. Everything was favourable for the send-off, and 
the company arrived at Hut Point, the first stoppage 
place, quite safely. From there they pushed on again 
in three parties, the slowest starting first, and the others 
following at sufficient intervals for all to arrive at the 
end of the day’s stage at the same time. The motor 
party going on in front were putting up cairns for 
guidance, and Scott himself on the journey to One Ton 
Depot had placed landmarks to guide them. On the 
4th Scott came across the wreck of the sledge worked by 
Captain Evans and Day — a cylinder had gone wrong, 
and the motor had had to be abandoned, the men going 
on with the other sledge. This was the first bit of ill- 
luck, but the days to come were to bring much more. 
The dash to One Ton Depot consisted of hard going over 
rough surfaces; there were blizzards, trouble with the 
ponies; snowrwalls had to be built to protect the animals 
at camp after a long and hard night’s toil, during which 
they had journeyed seldom more than ten miles. Night 
was chosen because it enabled them to escape the sun, 
which even in that latitude was sufficient to make them 
sweat as they forced their way over the terrible ground. 
They reached One Ton Depot at last, and then 
picked up the motor party, commanded by Evans, on 
November 21. The motorists had been waiting six 
days, unable to go any farther. 

The little band now plunged forward again, meeting 
the same difficult surface, having the same trouble with 


A Tragedy of the South Pole 239 

the ponies, one of whom had to be shot on the 24th, the 
day on which the first supporting party, consisting of 
Day and Hooper, were sent back to the base. Two days 
later a depot was laid. Middle Barrier Depot, and on 
the 28th, when ninety miles from the Glacier, another 
pony was shot, and provided food for the dogs. Ninety 
miles were still to be covered, and there was only food 
for seven marches for the animals. It would be stiff 
going, for Scott was relying upon the ponies getting 
him to the foot of the Glacier. 

Having laid another depot on December i, thus 
lightening the load, and hoping to be able to make good 
progress, they were furiously opposed by the elements. 
On the 3rd, the 4th, and the 5th, blizzards blew down 
upon them, impeding them, making the work trebly 
difficult, and the last one holding them up for four days, 
during which food, precious food, and much-needed 
fuel were being consumed without any progress being 
made. Impatient, bitterly cold, with the animals getting 
worn out, Scott and his companions had to keep to 
their tents, eager to go on, but realising that to venture 
forth was to court disaster. Experienced Polar explorer 
though he was, Scott was at a loss to account for the 
character of the weather at this, the m^st favourable, 
only practicable, time of the year. It was disheartening, 
especially when they had to start on the rations that 
they had reckoned would not be needed until they 
reached the summit of the Glacier. But at last the 
blizzard blew itself out, and, stiff and cold, the party set 
out again, each day finding their ponies becoming 
weaker, until on the 9th, at Camp 31, named the 
Shambles, all these were shot. 

Then it was a case of the dogs pulling the sledges, 
and on the loth the explorers began the ascent of the 
Beardmore Glacier, the summit of which was thousands 


240 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

of feet above them. Meares and Atkinson left for the 
base on the nth, and the reduced party trudged forward 
and upwards, now having to go down again to avoid 
some dangerous part, toiling manfully up the Glacier, in 
danger of falling into crevasses, sinking into soft snow, 
which made the surface so difficult that after trudging for 
hours and hours only four miles were covered when 
they had hoped to do ten or more. By the 22nd, when 
the next supporting party left, they had climbed 7,100 
feet (the day before they had been up 8,000 feet) and then 
a heavy mist enshrouded them, and hung them up for 
some hours — when every minute was precious. 

When they started on the 22nd there were but eight 
men, and these toiled on day after day, meeting all 
sorts of trouble, running all kinds of risks, but never 
stopping unless compelled, dropping a depot on the last 
day of the year, and sending back three men on the 
4th. This left only Scott, Captain Oates, Petty Officer 
Evans, Dr. Wilson and Lieutenant Bowers to make the 
final dash to the Pole. They had over a month’s rations, 
which was considered ample to do the 150 miles that 
separated them from their goal. 

The party now had the small ten-foot sledges, which 
were neat and compact, and much lighter than the 
twelve-foot sledges which were sent back. The dogs 
had now gone back, and all the pulling was done by the 
men. The difficulty of the surface made them leave their 
skis behind on the 7th, but later on that day the surface 
become so much easier that it was decided to go back 
for the skis, which delayed them nearly an hour and a 
half. They were now on the summit, and were held up 
by a blizzard which, though it delayed them, gave them 
the opportunity for a rest which they sadly needed, 
especially Evans, who had hurt his hand badly while 
attending to the sledges. On the 9th they were able to 


A Tragedy of the South Pole 241 

Start again, now swinging out across the great Polar 
plateau. They cached more stores on the loth, and 
found the lightening of the load very helpful. But even 
then, so hard was the pulling, that on the nth, when 
only seventy-four miles from the Pole, Scott asked him- 
self whether they could keep up the struggle for another 
seven days. Never had men worked so hard before at 
so monotonous a task ; winds blew upon them, clouds 
worried them because they knew not what might come 
in their wake; snow was falling and covering the track 
behind them, sufficient to cause them some anxiety, for 
they wanted that track to lead them home again via their 
depots upon which safety depended. 

The weather ! Day by day the weather worried them ; 
only that could baulk them in their purpose, and never 
men prayed so much for fine days as did these. The 
i6th found them still forcing their way onward, with 
lightened loads again, having left a depot on the pre- 
vious day, consisting of four days’ food ; and they knew 
that they were now only two good marches from the 
Pole. Considering they carried with them nine days’ 
rations, while just behind lay another four days’, they 
felt that all would be well if the weather would but keep 
clear for them. 

The thing that now troubled these men who toiled 
so manfully against great odds was the thought that 
lurked in their minds that when they reached the Pole 
they might find that they had been forestalled. For they 
knew, everyone of them, that the Norwegian, Amundsen, 
was bent on achieving what they were hoping to do : on 
being first at the Pole. They knew, too, that things had 
been more favourable for him from the very outset ; that 
he had been able to set out from a much better spot than 
they had. What if they attained the goal, only to find 
a foreign flag flying bravely in the breeze ? The thought 

Q 


242 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

was maddening ; but the Britishers were sportsmen. And 
when months before Scott had heard that Amundsen 
was in the South, instead of trying for the North Pole, 
as he had given out when he started, the gallant captain 
had made up his mind to act just as if he had no com- 
petitor. 

Next day, the i6th, all their hopes were dashed to the 
ground. Away out across the white expanse there 
loomed a tiny black speck, and immediately Scott’s 
thoughts flew to Amundsen. Some of his companions 
said it was one thing, others another. As they pulled 
hard at their loads the five men debated amongst them- 
selves, trying to cheer each other up, seeking to cast 
aside the horrible thought that would force its way into 
their minds. 

And then, the black spot was reached. It was a 
black flag, tied to a sledge bearer. It was the sign that 
the Norwegians had won in the race. 

All around were signs of a camp, which to the filmed 
eyes of the explorers were the tokens of their failure to 
be first. 

“It is a terrible disappointment,” wrote Scott in his 
diary, “and I am very sorry for my loyal companions. 
Many thoughts come and much discussion have we 
had. To-morrow we must march on to the Pole, and 
then hasten home with the utmost speed we can com- 
pass. All the day dreams must go; it will be a 
wearisome return.” 

And the next day the Pole was reached, and from 
out its solitude and austerity the great explorer cried : 

“Great God! This is an awful place, and terrible 
enough for us to have laboured to it without the reward 
of priority. . . .” 

The great goal had been won ; but the joy of 
achievement was dimmed; Amundsen’s records and 


A Tragedy of the South Pole 243 

tent were found there, the Norwegian flag had been 
hoisted and flaunted bravely in the wind. They had 
been forestalled by over a month. 

Having fixed up their “poor slighted Union Jack,’’ 
as Scott called it, the explorers turned northwards again, 
and began to retrace their footsteps over the Polar 
plateau, which had cost them so much labour to cross, 
then down the great Glacier with ever worsening 
weather. The men themselves, who had been so fit 
coming out, were now beginning to show signs of their 
gigantic labours; perhaps now, when the day dreams 
were over, and hopes long deferred had been fulfilled 
and dashed to pieces at one moment, they were dis- 
heartened ; there was not the spur of achievement before 
them. Evans and Oates began to show signs of weari- 
ness — those two strong men of the party. Evans had 
his nose and fingers frostbitten and suffered much 
agony. Then, while descending the Glacier, he tumbled 
on the Glacier, fell among rough ice which injured his 
head, and gave him a touch of concussion of the brain. 
Dr. Wilson injured his leg, and snow-blindness was 
causing him much trouble. All these things impeded 
the party, to whom time was everything ; food depended 
on picking up the depots on the right days — perhaps 
hours; and when, as often happened, the track was 
not easily found, the anxiety of the explorers was con- 
siderably increased. 

Then Evans grew worse; from being self-reliant, 
and the man on whom the party had been able to look 
for help in any circumstances, he became weak and 
wellnigh helpless ; he lagged behind, and the party had 
to wait for him to catch up. On February 17 at the 
foot of the Glacier, after a terribly hard day’s work, 
Evans — poor man ! — was so far behind when the party 
camped, that his comrades became anxious and went 


244 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

back for him. They found him. The limit of 
human endurance had been reached. “He was on his 
knees, with clothing disarranged, hands uncovered and 
frostbitten, and a wild look in his eyes.” They got 
him to the tent with great difficulty, and he died that 
night. Scott mourned his loss; and his journal is full 
of his praises of the petty officer who had been so in- 
defatigable a worker and so adaptable a man, doing 
everything his inventive genius could think of to lighten 
the work for the explorers. 

One day was now much like another to the four 
men left ; they pushed on and on, picking up depots as 
they went, and suffering every day from the bitter cold, 
and feeling the effects of the hard work. On March i6. 
Captain Oates went out. Frostbitten hands and feet 
had made life burdensome for him, and he knew that 
he was a burden to the gallant men with him; without 
him, they could progress much quicker. 

“Go on without me,” he had said, earlier in the day. 
“I’ll keep in my sleeping bag!” But they had pre- 
vailed upon him to keep on. Like a hero he forced 
himself to struggle on until they camped at night. 
When the morning came he awoke. Of him in those 
last moments Scott said : “He was a brave soul. ... It 
was blowing a blizzard. He said: “I’m just going 
outside, and may be some time.’ He went out into the 
blizzard, and we have not seen him since. . . . We 
knew that poor Oates was walking to his death ; but 
though we tried to dissuade him, we knew it was the 
act of a brave man and an English gentleman.” 

He had sacrificed himself for the sake of the others. 
“ Greater love hath no man than this.” 

Reduced now to three men, the little party struggled 
on gamely, fighting against the weariness that was upon 
them, making with all haste for One Ton Depot. They 


A Tragedy of the South Pole 245 

had expected ere this to have met the dogs which were 
to come out to help them back, but misfortune had 
overtaken Cherry Garrard, who had been waiting at One 
Ton Depot for six days held up by a blizzard. He had 
not sufficient food for the dogs to enable him to go 
south, and he knew that the state of the weather might 
easily make him miss Scott, whereas to wait at the depot 
was to be on hand when Scott did turn up. 

Now the dire peril of their position forced itself 
upon them; though they fought to drive the thoughts 
away, manfully cheering each other up, none of them 
believed that they would ever get through, and on 
March i8, when twenty-one miles from the depot, the 
wind compelled them to call a halt. Scott’s right foot 
was frostbitten; he suffered from indigestion; they had 
only a half fill of oil left and a small amount of spirit. 
It meant that when this was gone, they could have no 
more hot drink — which would bring the end. . 

Despite their sufferings they went on again, until on 
the 2ist they were camped eleven miles from the depot, 
a blizzard raging round them, little food, no fuel, and 
knowing in their hearts that when the next day dawned 
they could not continue the journey perilous and 
laborious ; the end was at hand. 

Days before Scott and Bowers had made Dr. Wilson 
give them that which would enable them to put an end 
to their misery; but now to-night, when face to face 
with death, they resolved that they would die natural 
deaths ; it should not be said of them that they shirked. 
Each morning until the 29th they got ready to start for 
the depot that was so near, with its food, its fuel, 
its warmth, its companions; and each day they found 
the blizzard howling about them, as effectual a barrier 
as if it had been a cast-iron wall. 

“We shall stick it out to the end,” wrote Scott on 


246 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

the 29th, “but we are getting weal^er, of course, and 
the end cannot be far. 

“ It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more. 

“For God’s sake look after our people ! ” 

And so they died, these heroes and gentlemen ; and 
through Scott’s last letters which were found with the 
dead bodies in the tent on November 10 there is but one 
thought running : the care of the people left behind and 
the praises of the men who had accompanied him. 
Never were such eulogiums written. “Gallant, noble 
gentlemen,” he called them, as death brooded over him ; 
and throughout every line there was the spirit of cheeri- 
ness which takes life — ^and death — as becomes a hero 
who knows that failure was no fault of his own, that 
man can do no more than fight nobly against the forces 
arrayed against him. 


STORIES OF THE LIFEBOAT 

Noble Deeds of Brave Men 

T he bluff and hearty men, heroes every one, who 
live all around the coasts, ready to launch their 
lifeboats to go to the aid of shipwrecked mariners, 
have a bright page in the history of the sea. They 
are the saviours of those who go down to the sea 
in ships, and on every errand of mercy they literally 
take their lives in their hands, place themselves on the 
knees of the gods ready for sacrifice. 

Sometimes the gods accept the sacrifice. 

It happened so in the case of the Fethard lifeboat 
which, on February 20, 1914, pushed off to the assist- 
ance of the Norwegian schooner Mexico, wrecked on 
the rocky island of South Keeragh. The Mexico, losing 
her bearings when off the south coast of Ireland, was 
driven into Bannow Bay, missed stays when her crew 
tried to put her about, was caught by the fierce S.S.W. 
gale and the strong tide, and driven close to the South 
Keeragh Island. 

On the mainland it was quickly observed that the 
Mexico was in a dangerous position, and about 3 p.m. 
the lifeboat Helen Blake shoved off to her assistance. 
The gallant lifeboatmen pulled their hardest, hoping to 
reach the spot in time to help the Mexico before the 
howling wind and the strong tide had finished the work 
begun ; but, though they tugged as they had never 
tugged before, they were too late. The Mexico was 
247 


248 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

picked up like an india-rubber ball and flung against 
the rock island. There was a grating sound as the hull 
crashed into the rocks ; the ripping of her bottom seemed 
like a clap of thunder ; and then the heavily laden ship, 
carrying tons of mahogany logs, bumped and bumped 
again upon the rocks, which held her fast. 

The men in the lifeboat, now fifty yards away, held 
their breath for a moment as they saw the disaster; 
then on they went again, carried this time not of their 
own free will, but by the relentless elemental forces. 
A heavy breaker caught the boat, broke over her in 
a mighty volume of water, and filled her up to the 
thwarts. 

“ Let go the anchor ! ” was the cry ; and instantly the 
anchor was flung overboard. But, before it could bring 
her up, three or four following seas, as though eager 
to ensure destruction, caught the boat, and with 
her freight of heroes, hurled her with a mighty crash 
against the rocks. She smashed to pieces as though she 
had been built of china. 

Fourteen men she had carried; and in an instant 
fourteen men were struggling for dear life in the midst 
of a boiling sea. Pygmies fighting against the giant 
forces of Nature, children beating puny hands upon 
the leering face of death, striving to force the black 
angel back; such were these men who, seeking to save 
others, were in danger of losing themselves. And in 
the titanic struggle nine men were lost. 

Five of them won. Buffeted against the rocks, 
clutching and loosing, they fought for handhold and 
foothold, and at last, scrambling over the 3lippery 
points, they managed to fight to safety. 

Then, weary and half dead themselves, they thought 
of what they had come out to do. The Mexico was still 
bumping dangerously upon the rocks, men clinging 


Stories of the Lifeboat 249 

to rigging, or to anything near at hand, lest the waves 
wash them away, or the lurching of the ship pitch them 
overboard — to death. And those heroes, who had felt 
the wings of the Angel of Death brush against them as 
he passed by, began the task of saving the men on the 
Mexico, 

How they did it they never realised; but they knew 
they worked hard, and one by one, by means of ropes, 
they brought eight men off the wrecked ship on to 
the island. It is but a bald statement of the fact that, 
but with untenable heroism, indomitable determination, 
and sublime indifference to death and danger behind it. 

With no boats, no food or water except what the 
Mexico men had managed to bring with them, and that 
all-insufficient, the thirteen men found themselves 
stranded on a barren island, with a raging tempest 
about them and no help in sight. 

They passed the first night in shivering despair, 
huddling together to warm each other. Morning came, 
and brought no signs of succour, though during the 
night other lifeboatmen had sought to sally forth to 
their help, but had been beaten back by the anger of 
the gale. 

The Wexford boat, James Stevens, and the Kilmore 
boat. The Sisters, had swept through the darkness 
towards them, their men fighting gallantly and the 
boats wrestling bravely with the waves and wind; 
but all to no avail. They had to put back, her 
mission unfulfilled. 

Meanwhile, a message had been sent to the Chief 
Inspector of Lifeboats in London, Commander Thomas 
Holmes, R.N., who was dispatched immediately to 
take charge of the operations. 

Presently the stranded men saw through the haze 
of the storm a black dot, tossing about on the bosom 


250 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

of the sea. It was the lifeboat Fanny Harriet, from 
Dunmore East, whose gallant crew were making an 
attempt to reach them. She fought bravely against the 
tumult, but was driven back again and again, until 
her crew, realising that it was hopeless to stay out 
any longer, reluctantly put back to harbour. Then 
once again, and yet again, the Kilmore boat plunged 
into the sea, followed by the Wexford boat, James 
Stevens. Yet all they could do was useless, and they 
were forced to return to shore. Father Neptune was 
winning. 

When Commander Holmes arrived on the scene at 
3 P.M. on the Sunday he found the Fanny Harriet lying 
in harbour at Fethard, her men eating their heads off as 
they thought of their enforced idleness. Something 
about the commander brought back to these heroes 
the determination to succeed ; and the boat was 
launched again, and fought her way towards the island. 
Once again, however, they were frustrated. The 
ground swell prevented them from getting anywhere 
near the island, and the stranded men wrung their 
hands as they saw her turn about. Hungry, thirsty, 
they looked forward to nothing but death. Already one 
of their number, a man from the Mexico, had succumbed 
to the exposure, and they saw in his fate the picture 
of their own, unless help came soon. They covered 
him up with some canvas and clods of earth. 

To the imperilled men the night of Saturday, the 
2 1 St, had been a terrible one. The gale that swept 
them was the worst known on the south coast of Ireland 
for many years, and the lifeboatmen, who had passed 
through many terrors of the sea, knew that they stood 
little chance of being taken off. For the thirteen men 
there were but two small tins of preserved meat and 
a few limpets. On the schooner were provisions in 



She fought bravely against the tumult, but was driven back again and again” {see page 250) 







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Stones of the Lifeboat 251 

plenty, but it was impossible to get into her to fetch 
them off; and, with food so near, they were face to 
face with hunger. Water, there was none; their drink 
consisted of a little brandy and half a pint of wine, 
which the Mexicans captain had managed to bring with 
him when leaving the vessel. The biting wind blew 
down upon them, cutting them to the bone; the spray 
flung up by the breaking waves drenched them, and 
they had no shelter from the pouring rain. Yet the 
Fethard men bore up bravely, encouraging the Nor- 
wegians and giving them hope, for they knew that no 
efforts would be spared to get them off. 

As, one by one, they saw the lifeboats try to reach 
them, only to be beaten back, not all the cheering words 
of the Irishmen served to keep up the spirits of the 
foreigners; and in their own hearts the Fethard men 
realised the hopelessness of it all. They might stay 
there until death came; for succour, it seemed, could 
never come. 

But in Fethard Commander Holmes was not idle. 
When the Fanny Harriet came back on the Sunday 
evening, he telephoned to Wexford, informing the life- 
boatmen that, on the Monday morning, another attempt 
would be made, and asking them to proceed to the scene 
on the chance that the weather would have moderated 
sufficiently to allow of something being done. Of 
course, the Wexford men said “Yes,” and, all being 
arranged, at six o’clock in the morning Holmes entered 
the Fanny Harriet, She carried a Dunmore East crew, 
and a Fethard man to pilot them, for the whole locality 
was strewn with hidden rocks and boulders. Fortu- 
nately, the gale had subsided somewhat, and the lifeboat 
was able to approach the vicinity of the wreck. Her 
men could see the stranded wretches, who waved at 
them frantically, urging them onwards. 


252 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

But the ground swell breaking outside the remains 
of the Mexico was still so heavy that it was necessary 
for the lifeboat to cruise round the island before a spot 
could be found whence it was possible to approach the 
shore. At last the boat was anchored in a fairly good 
position some hundred yards off the rocks ; and the life- 
boatmen immediately attempted to effect communication 
with the castaways. Rocket after rocket was fired, and 
eventually they succeeded in getting a stick-rocket 
ashore with a cod-line attached. By this means a 
strong line was hauled in by the men, and a small 
skiff which had been brought by the lifeboat was 
attached to the line, and veered successfully to within 
ten yards of the island. It seemed that rescue was really 
at hand, and the shivering, exhausted men brightened 
up. They would be saved ! 

Then their hopes were dashed to the ground. A 
heavy sea caught the skiff, a great wave broke upon 
her, filled her, and drove her with a crash against the 
rocks, which smashed her to pieces. But one ray of 
hope came to those men. A lifebuoy which was in the 
skiff was washed near to the shore, and a man plunged 
in, grasped it, and brought it ashore, and felt that all 
was not lost. 

Commander Holmes hailed them, and sought to get 
them to trust themselves to the lifebuoy, which the 
rescuers would drag through the seas with its living 
burden. It was asking much, and all knew it. It 
meant casting oneself upon the mercy of a tumultuous 
sea, meant giving oneself up to the danger of being 
flung upon rocks and boulders, to be dashed to death. 
The stranded men looked at each other; no one spoke. 
Then one man, the desire of life surging through him, 
took up the buoy, to which the rope had been fastened, 
placed himself in it, and hurled himself into the water. 


253 


Stories of the Lifeboat 

to be pulled into the lifeboat— safe ! Another man, 
seeing this, followed his example ; but the others, worn 
out by their experiences, preferred to wait for some 
surer way to safety than that, and elected to stay on 
the island. 

While this was going on, the Wexford boat arrived 
on the scene, having been towed out by her tug. It 
was now a quarter past eight in the morning, and she 
anchored close to the Franny Stevens, but in a rather 
better position ; and, to the rapture of the men on the 
island, she had brought with her a strong punt, which 
was more suitable for the work in hand than the skiff 
brought from Fethard. 

Two men of the Wexford boat, heroes both of them, 
volunteered to work the punt. They were William 
Duggan and James Wickham. They got into her, 
veered her down, with a rope attached to her bows, from 
the James Stevens, and, after a fearful experience, seized 
the opportunity that a “smooth” offered, and got her 
close enough to the rocks to snatch two of the men. 
Then, with a heave-ho ! they dragged them into the 
punt, which was at once hauled back to the lifeboat. 

Then out again in the same way the two heroes 
went. But this time they were not fortunate enough 
to escape damage. A wave caught them, and, as though 
the punt had been a toy yacht, flung her upon the rocks, 
which she hit with a crash ; and, when the retiring waves 
dragged her back, the two men found that she had a 
hole in her side. Resourceful, calm, they grabbed up 
a loaf of bread and some packing, and with this stopped 
up the hole that had threatened to send the boat to 
the bottom ; and then struck out once more for the rocks. 
That time two more men were saved; and so the work 
went on, Duggan and Wickham getting to shore no 
less than five times, taking off two men at each attempt. 


254 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

until the whole party of weary and almost frozen men 
were brought to the lifeboat. Death had been in 
attendance all along; but they braved it. They 
stuck stubbornly to their self-appointed task, and they 
succeeded. 

It took but little time for the tug to take the lifeboats 
in tow, and in due course the survivors of the tragic 
wreck were landed. The end had come to one of the 
most heroic episodes in the history of the lifeboat. Nay, 
not the end, for there was still the work of caring for 
those whom the death of the gallant men had left 
behind; and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution did 
all in its power to assist, while Their Majesties of Norway 
contributed to the fund opened, as also did the Storthing. 
And, later, the men who had worked so heroically, and 
had done so well, had their efforts recognised, though 
to them the greatest satisfaction was in knowing that 
they had wrought well, and had snatched precious lives 
from the greedy maw of the sea. 

A STILL more recent instance of heroic endeavour on 
the part of the lifeboatmen was on the occasion of the 
wreck of the hospital ship Rohilla. She had been taken 
over by the Government for use as a hospital ship, and 
on Friday, October 30, 1914, when on her way to 
Dunkirk, she ran into a terrific E.S.E. gale. She had 
229 people on board, including a medical staff and five 
nurses, bent on doing their best for the maimed heroes 
who had fought for country and honour on the battle- 
fields of Belgium and France. 

The official report of the Royal Lifeboat Institu- 
tion, on which this story is founded, is a vivid and 
graphic description of a tremendous calamity. 

It was soon after four o’clock in the morning that 
the Rohilla encountered the storm, and, though her 


Stories of the Lifeboat 255 

captain and crew did their very utmost, she ran on to 
a dangerous reef of rocks and lay at the mercy of a 
furious sea. Captain Neilson, who commanded, tried 
to get all the men to go forward, but those on the 
poop and aft could not cross the after part, over which 
giant seas were breaking. Pounded by mountainous 
waves, the Rohilla quickly broke in halves, and many of 
those on the after part of the ship were washed away 
at once, and perished. As soon as she struck, signals 
of distress were made, and Coxswain Thomas Lang- 
lands was promptly called. The sea was far too heavy 
to do anything until daybreak, when the No. 2 Life- 
boat, John Fielden, was hauled on skids under the 
Spa Ladder — a gangway from the East Pier at Whitby 
to the cliff — and along the rocky scaur to the scene of 
the wreck. This necessitated getting the boat over a 
sea-wall eight feet in height — a most formidable task. 

In transporting the boat she was stove in in two 
places. She was, nevertheless, launched, and succeeded 
in reaching the wreck, which lay surrounded by a mass 
of rocks. Twelve men and five women were saved and 
brought ashore. The boat was then again launched, 
and, after a fearful struggle with terrific seas, got to 
the vessel and saved eighteen more, the heavy waves 
which swept through the ship or broke over her deck 
filling the lifeboat time after time. Unfortunately, the 
boat soon became unfit for further service, owing to 
repeated bumping on the rocks. Captain John Mil- 
burn, a member of the local committee, then sent for 
the Upgang lifeboat, which was, with great difficulty, 
transported to the vicinity of the wreck. 

By means of ropes the boat was lowered down the 
almost precipitous cliffs, and preparations were made 
for her launch, but nothing could be done in the tre- 
mendous seas running. In the meantime the Tees- 


256 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

mouth motor lifeboat and the lifeboat stationed at 
Scarborough had been called by telephone to the assist- 
ance of those still on the wreck. 

Meanwhile, the Whitby coastguards were firing 
rockets in rapid succession, in the hope of getting lines 
to the ship; but only one was secured — ^and this was 
of no use to the shivering people who were on the 
bridge, which at any moment might give way.. 

The Scarborough lifeboat, Queenshury, in tow of 
the steam trawler Morning Star, started as soon as 
possible. It was quite dark when they arrived, and 
in the gale it was hopeless to establish communication 
with the wreck. Both craft, however, remained at hand 
through the night, and the endurance of the lifeboatmen 
was severely tested during their long vigil. At day- 
break, finding that it was still impossible to get near 
the wreck, they returned to Scarborough. 

In view of the tremendous seas making up the river 
at Teesmouth, it was decided not to dispatch the boat 
until daybreak next morning. This decision was con- 
veyed to Whitby by telephone, and at 5 a.m. next 
morning the crew left Redcar for Teesmouth, accom- 
panied by the Tees Commissioners’ tug. In crossing 
the bar the lifeboat encountered tremendous seas, and, 
as a result of falling into the trough of a mountainous 
wave, she sprang such a serious leak that she became 
disabled, and it became necessary for the tug to take 
the crew on board and tow the lifeboat back to Middles- 
brough. 

On Saturday morning the Upgang crew made a 
further attempt to rescue the survivors who were 
huddled together on one small portion of the wreck. 
For over an hour the crew struggled manfully to reach 
the wreck ; but the sea and the strong current running 
between the “Nab” and the wreck was too strong for 


Stories of the Lifeboat 257 

them, and eventually the men became totally exhausted, 
and had to give up their hopeless task. 

When the unfortunate men on the wreck, who had 
held on so bravely throughout the night, saw the hope 
of being rescued diminishing, some of them jumped 
overboard and attempted to swim ashore, and a number 
of the onlookers, with heroic disregard for their own 
safety, rushed into the boiling surf and succeeded in 
dragging many to the shore. 

The Whitby No. i Lifeboat, in tow of a steam 
trawler, also got within half a mile of the wreck, but 
the sea was too heavy for them to approach any nearer, 
and the boat reluctantly returned to harbour. 

It now became apparent that only a motor lifeboat 
would be able to render effective help, and the Tyne- 
mouth motor lifeboat was summoned by telegram. On 
Saturday afternoon the gallant crew, under the com- 
mand of Coxswain Robert Smith, and accompanied by 
Captain H. E. Burton, R.E., hon. superintendent of 
the motor lifeboat, started o.n their perilous journey. To 
reach Whitby they were obliged to travel a distance of 
forty-four miles through the night and storm, unaided 
by any coast lights, which were all extinguished on 
account of the war. Thanks, however, to Captain 
Burton’s intimate knowledge of the Yorkshire coast, 
their gallant exertions met with the success which 
they deserved, and at i a.m. on Sunday morning, 
November i, the boat was skilfully brought into Whitby 
Harbour. 

Four hours later, this boat, with Lieutenant Basil 
Hall, R.N., Inspector of Lifeboats for the Southern 
District, on board, and the Whitby second coxswain as 
pilot, left harbour for the wreck, a supply of oil being 
taken to subdue the waves. 

The rescue of those who had survived the terrible 

R 


258 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

ordeal for fifty hours is well described by the represen- 
tative of the Yorkshire Post, who witnessed the scene, 
and from whose report we give the following extracts : 

“The light was just rising over the sea at half-past 
six o’clock when the boat crept out of the harbour again, 
and breasted the breakers like a seabird as she headed 
straight out into calmer water. The lifeboat, looking 
fearfully small and frail, throbbed her way towards the 
wreck. Nearer and nearer she got; and then, when 
within 200 yards of the Rohilla, she turned seawards.” 

She was burning flares, and from the shore a search- 
light was playing upon the group of huddling people 
who had spent so many hours in darkness and the 
stress of storm. 

“Presently, when she had passed a few fathoms 
beyond and away from the wreck, she stopped dead, 
and discharged over the boiling sea gallons and gallons 
of oil. It seemed that the ocean must laugh at these 
puny drops, yet the effect was remarkable; within a 
few seconds the oil spread over the surface of the water, 
and the waves appeared suddenly to be flattened down 
as by a miracle. In the meantime the lifeboat turned 
about, raced at full speed past the stern of the wreck, 
and then turned directly towards the shore. The most 
dangerous moment came when she was inside the surf 
and broadside on to the waves ; but, guided with 
splendid skill and courage, she moved forward steadily, 
and a cheer of relief went out from the shore when she 
reached the lee of the wreck, immediately beneath the 
crowded bridge. 

“But there was not a moment to be lost, for already 
the effects of the oil were beginning to pass off, and 
the waves were noticeably higher. Quicker than 
thought a rope was let down to the lifeboat, and imme- 
diately figures could be discerned scrambling down into 


Stories of the Lifeboat 259 

the boat. In less than a quarter of an hour more than 
forty men had been rescued. While the rest were pre- 
paring to leave the wreck, two enormous waves swept 
over the wreck and enveloped the lifeboat. Each time 
the tough little craft disappeared for a moment, re- 
appeared, tottered, and righted herself gamely. Indeed, 
not a man was lost, not a splinter broken. Closer still 
she hugged the vessel’s side, till every man aboard — 
fifty of them in all — had been hauled into the rescuing 
boat. 

“The last man to leave his lost ship was the captain, 
and as he slipped into the lifeboat the crew of the latter 
gave a rousing cheer that was echoed again and again 
by the people ashore.” 

Even now the lifeboat had not finished its work; 
there was danger ahead. Great heads reared at her; a 
tremendous sea swamped down upon her, and she 
nearly capsized ; but, shaking herself free, she laboured 
away, making fair progress. Then another huge wave 
rose at her, threatened her with destruction, was met 
boldly. Struck broadside on, the lifeboat was almost 
on her beam-ends. Watchers on the shore held their 
breath. Would she withstand the shock? She did, 
and swept gallantly forward, and at last reached the 
harbour mouth. 

What cheers went up then ! Men on shore cheered 
the gallant rescuers, who cheered back, while the 
rescued men in the boat joined their voices with the 
others. Then the boat came to the quay, and men ran 
down the steps to help the saved ashore, where they were 
soon taken to shelter, after having passed through a 
terrible experience. 


TALES OF THE SMUGGLERS 


Stories of Smugglers’ Ways and Smuggling Days have 
always had a Fascination 

^YTHING more adventurous than the lives of the 



old smugglers would be hard to find. Nowadays 
a man seeks to get prohibited goods into the country 
by using false bottoms to his trunks, or swathing his 
legs in bandages of rich lace; and maybe a woman 
smuggler cuddles to her bosom a “baby” of most 
wonderful make-up — laces, tobacco, scent ! But there 
is little of the adventurous about that smuggling to-day, 
and we have to hark back to the days when men liter- 
ally took their lives in their hands in the effort to outwit 
the Government and to avoid paying the taxes. 

The strangest thing about smuggling is that all 
classes of people were engaged in it — sailors, soldiers, 
fishermen, justices of the peace, and even clergymen ! 
When a village depended almost entirely for its trade 
upon the illicit running of goods, perhaps it is not to 
be wondered at that the parson had his sympathies 
with his parishioners. 

A good instance of this is to be found in the story 
of the smugglers of Morwenstowe, Cornwall. A visitor 
from an inland town, strolling along the beach, 
stumbled upon the scene of a “landing” one evening. 
The ship lying in the offing, the boats hurrying to the 
beach laden with kegs of brandy, the people lining 
the shore, waiting to roll the kegs away to safety, soon 


260 


Tales of the Smugglers 261 

made him realise what was afoot; and, being honest, 
he was staggered. And being also very temperate, he 
was shocked to see men knocking in the heads of kegs 
and taking their fill of brandy, and becoming so far 
intoxicated as to quarrel amongst themselves. 

“What a horrible sight! Have you no shame?” 
he cried, addressing the crowd in general. “Is there no 
magistrate at hand? Cannot any justice of the peace 
be found in this fearful country?” 

“No, thanks be to God!” came the answer from 
somewhere amongst the busy crowd. “None within 
eight miles.” 

“Well, then,” exclaimed the visitor, “is there no 
clergyman hereabout? Does no minister of the parish 
live among you ? ” 

“Aye, to be sure there is,” was the reply. 

“Well, how far off does he live? Where is he?” 
asked the virtuous gentleman, who next moment 
received another shock. 

“There ! That’s he, sir — ^yonder with the lanthorn,” 
was the answer that came to him; and looking in the 
direction indicated, he saw a venerable-looking man, 
in his parson’s clothes, holding the light while his 
parishioners worked at robbing the State ! 

When smuggling began it would be hard to say, 
except that one would be safe in supposing that as soon 
as a thing was taxed attempts were made to slip it 
into the country untaxed. As, however, it is not in- 
tended here to try to outline the history of smuggling, 
we need not worry about that, but content ourselves 
with picking out here and there some of the choice 
passages from the history. 

Something historical, however, must be allowed 
to intrude, because it had a great bearing upon 
smuggling; and that is, that prior to i8i6 there were 


262 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

no systematic attempts made to prevent the illicit im- 
portation of taxed goods. True, the Government 
had excise men and revenue cutters on guard; but 
they were all too few, owing chiefly to the fact that 
the great wars of the eighteenth century took up most of 
the men, while the general slackness tended to make 
it fairly easy for the “free trader,” as he was called, 
to slip into some cove and unload his illegal cargo. 
Sometimes, indeed, the revenue men themselves had 
lapses and “ran” goods in on their own account! In 
1816, however, following the conclusion of the great 
peace, the Government instituted a regular system of 
smuggling prevention. Kent and Sussex having been 
the favourite playground of the smugglers, the coasts 
of these two counties were blockaded. A man-o*-war, 
the Hyperion, was stationed at Newhaven, in Sussex, 
and the Ramilies in the Downs, off Kent; and the 
martello towers w^hich had been erected along the 
coasts against the coming of Napoleon’s armies were 
used to house their crews. To all intents and purposes 
these sailors were the first coastguards, and in due 
course the system of blockading was carried out all 
round the coasts of Britain, chiefly by means of the 
revenue men and cutters. On these the Government 
drew, and duly formed the “Preventive Water Guard,” 
whose crews were stationed at certain spots along the 
coasts to keep watch and ward day and night. 

It is true that at the end of the seventeenth century 
there were Riding Officers, whose work was to patrol 
the south-east coast on the look-out against wood 
smugglers. But as there were only about three hundred 
of them, and these all civilians, they were by no means 
an effective check to the smugglers. Later on they were 
permitted the assistance of the dragoons, who naturally 
resented being placed under the direction of civilians, 


Tales of the Smugglers 263 

with the result that there was much friction, and the 
service, instead of being improved, suffered a great 
deal, the soldiery incidentally finding it a paying game 
to keep in with the smugglers. 

In 1822 changes were made, and the civilian riding 
officers disappeared and their places were taken by men 
from the cavalry regiments, and at the same time the 
Board of Customs was given sole control of the preven- 
tive services, which then consisted, as we have seen, of 
the revenue cutters. Preventive Water Guard, and Rid- 
ing Officers. Seven years later something more was 
done — the coastguard proper was born. No man was 
eligible for the service unless he was between twenty 
and thirty years of age and had served six years at 
sea or seven years’ apprenticeship in fishing-boats. The 
new force justified its creation, and in a few years took 
charge of the work that had been done by the revenue 
men who had been detailed for the blockade system 
along the east and south coasts; and then, later, the 
revenue men were made liable to service on board the 
men-o’-war; so that to-day the coastguard force is a 
part of the Royal Navy, and has even had its taste of 
active service, having been found of immense use, for 
instance, in the Crimean War. 

So much for the dry bones of history as seen in 
the development of the coastguard force, which is bound 
up with the story of smuggling, from which we will 
now cull some instances. 

The smuggler was honest — in some ways. For in- 
stance, away back in the latter half of the eighteenth 
century there lived a man who, named John Carter, 
received the sobriquet “The King of Prussia.” Carter’s 
home was at Porth Leah, in Mount’s Bay, that won- 
derful place in Cornwall. To Porth Leah was later 
given the name of Prussia Cove, in honour of the 


264 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

“honest smuggler,” who did things so thoroughly that 
he erected a battery with which to keep the revenue 
cutters at bay, cut a road by which he could transport 
his cargoes from the harbour — which he also built; 
and out of the many caves along the coast fashioned 
cellars in which to store his goods. In fact. Forth 
Leah was what one might call a smugglers’ community. 

The “King of Prussia” had a regular trade with 
regular customers, to whom he would, like any other 
trader, make definite promises of delivery; and, being 
a stickler for good business, he never let anything 
stand in the way of his carrying out his contracts. 
One day, while he was away, the excise officers found 
a cargo just arrived at Forth Leah from France. They 
promptly seized the cargo and carried it off to Penzance, 
and put it in the Custom House store under guard. 
Thus it was that Carter, coming back, found his cargo 
gone — and he had promised to deliver it to his 
customers on a certain day. 

“See here!” he exclaimed to his men. “Whaat 
be I to do? I be an honest maan, and must keeap 
me woord. I tell ’ee, men, we be gwine to d’liver they 
goods ’cordin’ to pledge ! ” 

His men knew that when Carter felt that his repu- 
tation as an honest man was at stake he would take 
strong measures, and got themselves ready against 
the coming of night. In due course they embarked on 
their ship, and, armed to the teeth, as becomes men 
going on a perilous errand, sailed across to Penzance. 
Arrived here, they fell upon the few Customs officers 
left in charge, and before they knew what had happened 
the latter were prisoners and the smugglers were rifling 
the stores, seeking their confiscated cargo. Not a thing 
did Carter or his men take away that wasn’t their own. 
They weren’t out thieving ! Away they went with their 


Tales of the Smugglers 265 

cargo to Forth Leah, where they quickly stowed it in 
their cave-cellars, ready to ship again when the time 
came for Carter to deliver his goods as per contract ! 

Thus, while saving his reputation the King of 
Prussia added to it, for when, the next morning, the 
revenue officers came to the Custom House and found 
what had happened, they soon made up their minds 
who had been at work ; 

“It was Jack Carter,” they said. “He always was 
honest, and took nothing that wasn’t his own.” 

The romantic stories of smugglers abound in in- 
cidents connected with the caves they used for hiding 
their illicit cargoes. All along the coasts may be seen 
these galleried caves, and if you can get hold of the 
oldest inhabitant, he will tell you tales of wonder and 
danger. One oldest inhabitant of a Dorset village told 
me such a story once. 

It would seem that on a certain night a cargo was 
to be run, and one by one, at this inn and the other, 
men gathered to await the coming of night. When 
twilight fell, men were posted at different points of the 
cliff to keep a look out for a revenue cutter, and in 
the event of one coming, to endeavour to warn the 
men bringing the smuggling vessel in. No cutter 
appeared, and in due time — almost to the minute 
arranged — the smugglers came into view. Word was 
sent to the inns, and the men hurried down to the 
shore, helped to pull the vessel up, and then began 
the work of unloading her. Methodically, as though 
each man had been trained to the work, the smugglers 
set about the task, getting barrels, casks, and what not 
ashore in an incredibly short time ; and while one batch 
did this, another hoisted the bales on their own backs 
or the backs of pack-horses. Then away they went 
into the night, making for their secret store-house. 


266 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

This was a cave with a small entrance, barely large 
enough for a man to squeeze through ; but inside it 
opened out into a large, roomy place with niches cut. 
In these holes the goods were stored as, one by one, men 
came in with them ; and the work was almost done when 
there came from outside the sounds which told them that 
trouble was afoot. The revenue men, perhaps warned by 
some gossiper of what was going on, had dashed round 
a headland in their cutter and interrupted the work. 

Before the smugglers knew what had happened the 
cutter had swept into the little cove, there was a sharp 
command of “In the King’s name!” followed by 
roars from the smugglers, who, thus trapped, began 
to think of safety. The horses that were at hand were 
whipped up, men seized whatever lay near them, and 
before the revenue men could land they were running 
inland, keeping clear of the cave so that the Govern- 
ment men should not find it. As quickly as possible 
the Customs men leaped ashore, rushed after the fleeing 
men, called upon them to surrender, were answered by 
curses, and immediately opened fire. 

It was the signal for a free fight. Armed, all of 
them, the smugglers dropped their burdens and turned 
about. Shots rang out, the pistols flashed fire, cries 
of men arose; revenue men fell to the ground, smug- 
glers bit the dust, but it seemed that the officers must 
win, when suddenly there was a rush. Under cover 
of the darkness the men in the cave had slipped out, 
made a detour, and then, with shouts and shots, fell 
upon the revenue men, and in a few minutes had put 
them to flight. 

Then, w^asting no time on the wounded officers, the 
smugglers went back; some got into the boat and 
slipped out with her, while the rest finished the work 
of hiding the goods. 


Tales of the Smugglers 267 

The “run” was over, and for several weeks the 
smugglers remained quiet, lest they should be traced 
as having taken part in the murderous affray. 

We have referred above to the smugglers of Kent, 
and these gentry were by no means the honest kind of 
folk like the Cornishmen. A typical case of Kentish 
smugglers’ ways is that of the Hawkhurst gang, who, 
under their leader, Thomas Kingsmill, earned such a 
reputation for ruffianism that a special body called the 
“Goudhurst Militia” was raised to resist them, and 
many a stiff fight did the two bands have. The most 
disgraceful happenings in the career of the Hawkhurst 
gang were those that followed the affair of the Poole 
Custom House, where an illicit cargo of tea, valued at 
;^5oo, had been taken into store by the officers. This 
cargo had been destined for Sussex, and the Hawkhurst 
gang and the Sussex men made a compact to break open 
the Custom House and rescue it. 

Accordingly, on October 6, 1747, the smugglers set 
out for Poole, having arranged that thirty of them were 
to make the attack and thirty were to keep a look-out on 
the various roads. Arriving at Poole late at night, 
they sent a couple of men into the town to see if the 
way was clear. 

One of the scouts came back with information that 
a large sloop lay in the harbour, in such a position that 
she might easily train her guns on the door of the Custom 
House and blow them to the winds if they dared to 
attack. The Sussex men were scared, and, preferring 
to lose the tea than their lives, turned back as if to go 
av/ay. But Kingsmill cried : 

“If you won’t do it, we’ll go and do it ourselves ! ” 

The result was a consultation, during which another 
man came from the harbour to say that the tide was 
low and that the sloop could not bring her guns to 


268 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

bear on the raiders. The consultation came to an end, 
and the smugglers went forward, riding down a little 
back lane on the left of the town until they came to 
the seashore, where they left their horses. Then on to 
the Custom House, which they soon broke open, and, 
taking their tea, carried it to their horses, packed it, 
and rode away mightily pleased with themselves. Next 
morning they arrived at Fordingbridge. Here they had 
breakfast and fed their horses, going on afterwards to a 
place called Brook, where they obtained a pair of steel- 
yards and weighed the tea, which was then divided 
amongst the men. 

The news of the raid set the Customs folk by the 
ears, and a reward was offered for the apprehension of 
the raiders, but months passed by without the Govern- 
ment officials being able to obtain a clue. “A striking 
commentary, surely,” says Lieutenant H. N. Shore in 
“Smuggling Days and Smuggling Ways,” “on the 
state of merry England in the year of grace 1747 ! Here 
was a body of thirty armed men riding into a seaport 
town, storming the ‘ King’s warehouse,’ and passing 
openly and undisguised the following morning with 
their booty through a portion of the most civilised and 
thickly populated part of England, and yet not a single 
individual of the many who witnessed the passage of 
the strange cavalcade, and were acquainted with many 
of those composing it, could be induced to come forward 
and assist the authorities in bringing the offenders to 
justice.” 

Eventually, however, a clue was obtained. In the 
February following the raid one named Chater, a shoe- 
maker of Fordingbridge, was going, in company with 
a Customs officer named Galley, to make a call upon 
Major Batten, J.P. for Sussex. The couple arrived at 
the small village of Rowland’s Castle, and put up at 


Tales of the Smugglers 269 

the “White Hart” for refreshment, and probably, after 
dining not wisely but too well, they let slip the in- 
formation that they were bound for Major Batten. Now 
there were few people in those days who were not hand 
in glove with the smugglers, and the least suspicious 
sign was always conveyed to the smugglers to be on 
their guard. Widow Payne, who kept the inn, had 
two smuggler sons, and these she at once dispatched 
to give warning; and in due course men began to drop 
into the “White Hart.” They chummed up with the 
strangers, drank and talked with them, and at last 
Chater, inveigled outside, volunteered the information 
that he was on his way to swear against one of the men 
who had taken part in the Poole Custom House affair. 
Galley, Chater’s companion, began to wonder what was 
afoot, and came outside to see; and had no sooner 
shown his face out of the door than he was knocked 
head over heels. 

“I am a King’s officer,” he exclaimed, “and ” 

“A King’s officer, are you ? ” said his assailant. “Pll 
make a King’s officer of you; and for a quartern of 
gin I’ll serve you so again ! ” 

The smuggler’s mates gathered round, and realising 
that open methods would be rash, succeeded in soothing 
the irate King’s officer; and the company went back 
to the inn to drink and feast. Sad to relate, Chater 
and Galley got drunk, and had to be put to bed; and 
when they awoke they found themselves on the back of 
a horse, being carried they knew not whither, but with 
men slashing at them with whips and crying : 

“Whip ’em, cut ’em, slash ’em, curse ’em I ” 

The smugglers had at first made up their minds to 
hide them for a while, until the commotion had blown 
over, and then send them away to France; but the 
smugglers’ wives had considered this too mild treat- 


270 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

ment, and had called out for their death. “Hang the 
dogs ! ” they cried. “For they came to hang us ! ” 

Eventually, however, gentler measures were sug- 
gested, and it was decided that the men were to be 
secreted until it was discovered what was to be done with 
the smuggler who had been arrested — the man against 
whom Chater was going to give evidence. Each of the 
ruffians had agreed to give threepence a week towards the 
keep of the two men, but, drink-maddened, they soon 
forgot this, and set to work to belabour the unfortunate 
men, who at last rolled under the horse’s belly, and hung 
thus while the animal was driven like mad, the hoofs 
striking the men’s heads as they went. Then they were 
hoisted on to the horse’s back again, and the whipping 
renewed until the poor fellows were a mass of bruises 
and weals and too exhausted to keep on the horse’s 
back. They were then untied, slung across other horses, 
and carried on through the night, till the men cried out 
in their agony to be shot through the head. 

Presently unconsciousness came to their relief. 
Arrived at Rake, near Liss, the smugglers drew up 
at the “Red Lion,” and induced the landlord to admit 
them. Here they imbibed afresh, and, drink-sodden, no 
doubt, they took Galley’s body and buried it in a sand- 
pit — probably while he was alive, for when the corpse 
was exhumed it was found that his hands were before 
his face, as though held there to protect it. 

Chater, exhausted and running blood, was taken 
to the village of Trotton and chained to a post in a turf 
house, with two smugglers to guard him, and with 
barely enough food to keep him alive, pending the 
decision of the smugglers as to what to do with him. 
Next day they spent in revelry, and at night they re- 
paired to the turf house, where one of them, drawing 
a large clasp knife, went up to Chater and cried : 


Tales of the Smugglers 271 

“Down on your knees and to prayers ! I’ll be your 
butcher I ” 

Chater, who was frightened almost to death, knelt, 
and the next instant received a kick in the back. 
Gasping, he asked tremblingly what had become of 
Galley. 

“We’ve killed him, curse you!” cried one of the 
ruffians. “And we’ll kill you ! ” And drawing his clasp 
knife, slashed it across the man’s eyes and nose, almost 
cutting out both eyes and slitting the gristle of his nose I 
A second slash made a terrible gash on Chater’s fore- 
head, and after several other barbarities the unfortunate 
man was tied on a horse and carried to “Harris’s Well,” 
in Lady Holt Park, where they thought to drown him. 
First, however, they tried to hang him; but the rope 
was too short to admit of a sufficient drop, and he hung 
over the well. What did the smugglers do but cut the 
rope and send him hurtling down the well head first; 
and then, finding that he still lived, they pitched stones 
down at him until they were absolutely certain that he 
was dead ! 

A more revolting case it would be hard to conceive ; 
and as the smugglers took every precaution to hide 
traces of their crime, they considered themselves safe. 
They overlooked one thing, however. Galley’s great- 
coat had been dropped on the journey from Rowland’s 
Castle, and it was found later on, bloodstained, and 
sent to the Customs men, who at once knew that the 
smugglers had been at work. A large reward was im- 
mediately offered, and a free pardon promised to any- 
one who would “peach”; but as the smugglers had 
vowed amongst themselves not to “inform,” and had, 
indeed, been terrified by one of their leaders, who swore 
to kill any informer, “whether one of themselves or 
anybody else,” and as even the Custom officers were 


272 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

timid in face of the open threats made by the smuggling 
community, it did not seem likely that the butchers 
would ever be brought to justice. It may seem in- 
credible that such should be the case, but the picture 
painted by a contemporary writer brings the facts home. 
“The smugglers had reigned a long time uncontrolled,” 
says this writer. “They rode in troops to fetch their 
goods, and carried them off in triumph by daylight; 
nay, so audacious were they grown that they were not 
afraid of regular troops that were sent against them into 
the country to keep them in awe. ... If any one of 
them happened to be taken, and the proof ever so 
clear against him, no magistrate durst commit him to 
jail. If he did, he was sure to have his house or barns 
set on fire, or some other mischief done him, if he 
was so happy as to escape with his life ! ” 

But, Nemesis ! What all the efforts of the King’s 
officers could not accomplish an anonymous letter 
brought about. This letter, written by someone who 
was in the know, was sent to the authorities, and it told 
them of the likely place in which Galley’s body would 
be discovered. Search was made, and the body found. 
A second unsigned letter gave the name of a man con- 
cerned in the crime. This man was arrested, and, fear- 
ing for his life, turned King’s evidence, told everything, 
and the King issued a proclamation that unless they 
surrendered themselves to justice at a day appointed 
the smugglers would be outlawed; and a reward of 
;^5oo was promised for the apprehension of every one 
who should be convicted. 

In the end seven of the murderers were caught and 
put in prison. A special assize was held at Chichester, 
January i6, 1749 — nearly twelve months after the crime 
— and the seven were sentenced to death, five of them 
to be hung in chains as a warning. 


Tales of the Smugglers 273 

Later two more of the gang were captured and 
executed, and in April of 1749 the Hawkhurst gang 
came to an end, for the crimes laid to its account 
.roused the Government to vigorous action, the smugglers 
were caught one by one, and at last Kingsmill, the 
ringleader, was hanged at Tyburn. 


MODERN CORSAIRS 

How the German Rovers were Destroyed 

T he outbreak of the Great War of the Nations found 
various German warships in the Atlantic and 
Pacific, ready to prey upon the Allies’ shipping, and 
day by day the news flashed across the world of mer- 
chant ships sunk or captured, and this despite the fact 
that Great Britain, France, Russia and Japan were 
scouring the seas to find the destroyers. First one and 
then another of the German marauders was caught and 
sent to its doom. But even then a fair number were 
abroad; several of them — the Dresden, the Nurnherg, 
Leipzig, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau — were tackled by 
Admiral Craddock, in command of a British squadron 
of much inferior strength. The Germans won, only a 
few weeks later to be trapped by Admiral Sturdee and 
a strong squadron off the Falkland Islands. In the 
battle that ensued the Germans lost, and the vessels 
were sent to the bottom. 

Before the battle of the Falklands took place, how- 
ever, there had been certain other events of scarcely less 
importance — namely, the hunting down of the Konigs^ 
herg and the Emden, the most noted of the German 
corsairs. That they did fine work for their country, 
even British tars will admit. They were as slippery 
as eels, and turned up in the most unexpected places 
and at the most inconvenient times for the British trad- 
ing vessels. But at last Nemesis overtook them. 

274 


Modern Corsairs 275 

There was the Emden, for instance. She was at 
Tsing-tau when war broke out, and immediately started 
out on her marauding cruise. Slipping out of the 
harbour she steamed off for the Straits of Malacca, with 
enemies hot upon her track. She hoodwinked them, 
and while they were going southward, she swept into 
the Bay of Bengal, sinking various vessels as she went, 
and finally shelling Madras, setting fire to the oil tanks 
there. 

Thence she went to Ceylon, sending four more boats 
to the bottom, making nine in all. Another she sent 
into port with the crews of the sunken ships, and yet a 
further one — the collier Buresk — she held on to for the 
sake of the coal she carried. So, aided by wireless 
installations in different places and by supply ships, 
she kept on her destructive way, until by October 19 she 
had captured half a dozen more ships. 

Then something happened to annoy her. H.M.S. 
Yarmouth, which had been following her doggedly, 
seized some of her supply ships ; and the Emden slipped 
into hiding for a while, though trading vessels still went 
in dread, expecting her to turn up suddenly. 

She did turn up suddenly, though her quarry was 
something better than merchant shipping. On Octo- 
ber 21 — Trafalgar Day — a four-funnelled cruiser swept 
into Penang roadstead, and the French destroyer 
Mousquet and the Russian light cruiser Jemtchug little 
thought that this was the Emden, which they knew had 
only three funnels. What had happened was that Cap- 
tain von Muller, her commander, had rigged up a jury 
funnel out of woodwork and canvas, thus altering alto- 
gether the appearance of his ship. 

The Jemtchug saluted her with “Who are you ? ” 

“ Yarmouth! ” was the audacious answer. “Coming 
to anchorage I ** And the Emden immediately swung 


276 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

round stern on to the Jemtchug, Forthwith she loosed 
one of her deadly torpedoes at the Russian, following 
it up with a shower of shells from her 4-inch guns. 
Down went the Jemtchug, the French boat going after 
her almost immediately, stricken to death by the crafty 
Emden. 

Having thus completed the destruction of her un- 
suspecting foes, the German corsair went into hiding 
again, but on November 9 appeared off the Cocos Islands 
— to meet her doom. 

For the Australian cruiser Sydney received an in- 
terrupted wireless message from the Cocos to the 
effect : “Strange warship ... off entrance,” and at once 
sped off at full steam, and at 9.15 the look-out saw the 
tops of the coco-nut trees of the Keeling Islands in the 
distance. Five minutes later the Emden*s funnels were 
sighted, twelve or fifteen miles away. Game, the Ger- 
man opened fire at a long range, the Sydney waiting 
for a little while, and then sending her explosive replies. 
It was a gallant fight; the Emden made some fine 
firing practice, smashing the Sydney*s No. 2 starboard 
gun almost immediately, and putting practically all the 
crew out of action. The Australian’s aft control was 
blown to pieces, and a fire broke out, which her men 
soon got under while the fight raged. 

The crew of the Sydney worked well that morning, 
as the letter of one of her officers testifies : 

“The hottest part of the action for us was the first 
half-hour. We opened fire from our port guns to begin 
with. I was standing just behind No. i port, and the 
gunlayer (Atkins, First-Class Petty Officer) said : ‘ Shall 
I load, sir ? ’ I was surprised, but deadly keen there 
should be no ‘ flap,’ so said : ‘ No, don’t load till you 
get the order.’ Next he said : ^ Emden* s fired, sir.’ So 
I said : ‘ All right, load, but don’t bring the gun to the 


Modern Corsairs 277 

ready.* I found out afterwards that the order to load 
had been received by the other guns ten minutes before, 
and my anti-‘ flap ’ precautions, though they did not 
the slightest harm, were thrown away on Atkins, who 
was as cool as a cucumber throughout the action. 

“All the time we were going 25 and sometimes as 
much as 26 knots. We had the speed on the Emden, 
and fought as suited ourselves. We next changed 
round to starboard guns, and I then found the gun- 
layer of No. I starboard had been knocked out close 
to the conning tower, so I brought Atkins over to fire 
No. I starboard. I was quite deaf by now, as in the 
hurry there had been no thought of getting cotton- 
wool. 

This is a point I won’t overlook next time. 

“Coming aft the port side from the forecastle gun I 
was met by a lot of men cheering and waving their 
caps. I said : ‘ What’s happened ? ’ ‘ She’s gone, sir, 
she’s gone.’ I ran to the ship’s side, and no sign of 
a ship could I see. If one could have seen a dark cloud 
of smoke, it would have been different. But I could 
see no sign of anything. So I called out : ‘ All hands 
turn out the lifeboats, there will be men in the water.’ 
They were just starting to do this when someone calfed 
out : 

“‘She’s still firing, sir,* and everyone ran back to 
the guns. What had happened was a cloud of yellow 
or very light-coloured smoke had obscured her from 
view, so that looking in her direction one’s impression 
was that she had totally disappeared. Later we turned 
again and engaged her on the other broadside.” 

But, although she was still fighting gamely, the 
Emden was in a poor way; her three funnels and her 
foremast were shot away, and she was on fire aft. To 
complete the work so well begun, the Sydney swung 


278 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

round again, and opened on her with the starboard 
guns, which sent her running ashore on North Keeling 
Island. Then, having fought for an hour and forty 
minutes, and realising that the Emden could not escape, 
the Sydney went in chase of the German’s collier. Com- 
ing up with her, they found that the crey had opened the 
seacocks and that she was sinking rapidly. The crew 
was taken off, and the Sydney steamed back to have a 
look at the Emden. It was four o’clock when she 
arrived, and almost immediately the Germans hauled 
down their colours and hoisted a white flag; they 
were surrendering. In the ordinary course the Sydney 
would now have sent boats out on rescue work, but it 
was too late in the evening to do that, especially in 
view of the fact that at any moment another German 
cruiser — the Konigsberg — might come into sight, when 
the Sydney would need to be ready to tackle her. She 
therefore steamed away till morning, picking up a 
German sailor as she went, making the fourth they 
had managed to rescue during the day. 

Early next morning the Sydney looked in at the 
cable station, to find that a landing party from the 
Emden had smashed the instruments, and then stolen a 
schooner and escaped. 

A little after eleven o’clock the Sydney went back 
to where the Emden had run ashore, and an officer was 
sent over to her. He was helped aboard by the Ger- 
mans, and found the vessel an absolute shambles. One 
hundred and eighty men were killed. Captain von 
Muller gave his parole, and the wounded were quickly 
got over to the Sydney, where they were attended to. 
The remainder of the crew were then transhipped, and 
the Sydney sped off for Colombo, where she received a 
mighty welcome, though she went in silent, for her 
captain had ordered that there should be no cheering 


Modern Corsairs 279 

over the defeat of gallant foes, who had always behaved 
like gentlemen to those whom they had captured. 

When we recall that during the days of her maraud- 
ing cruise the Emden had captured and sunk shipping 
to the value of little less than four and a half million 
pounds, it will be seen that the Sydney had done some 
very good work in bringing her career to an end. 

The Konigsberg, which the Sydney had half ex- 
pected to turn up at the Cocos Islands, met her doom 
at the hands of the British light cruiser Chatham in 
the Rufigi River, German East Africa. The Kbnigs- 
berg had also been a danger on the seas, but she had 
only succeeded in sinking one trading vessel and dis- 
abling the obsolete cruiser Pegasus. The latter had 
snapped at the Germans at Dar-es-Salaam in German 
East Africa, and had then gone over to Zanzibar to 
repair. She was, however, surprised by the Konigs- 
berg while her crew were hard at this work. Before 
they knew what was what a hail of shells was poured 
into the Pegasus, which shivered from the shock; her 
steel work was bent and twisted, men fell dead or 
wounded, and very soon the Pegasus men knew that 
they were fighting a hopeless battle. But they fought 
it as became men with the tradition of unconquerable 
pluck behind them. 

Their ensign was sent hurtling to the deck by a 
lucky shot; a man seized it in his hand and held it 
aloft, a sign of defiance to their overwhelming opponent. 
That man died waving the flag; another snatched it 
from his dead hand, and flaunted it bravely; and when 
the Konigsberg, her work done, steamed away, the 
British ensign still floated in the breeze above thu 
shattered Pegasus. 

This one-sided action took place on September 19, 
and just over a month later the Konigsberg was run 


28o The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

down by the Chatham, and her career came to an end. 
The Chatham found her hiding in the Rufigi River, 
six miles up stream. The British cruiser, owing to her 
great draught, could not go up after her, and the Konigs- 
berg landed part of her crew, who dug themselves into 
entrenchments on the Mafia island at the entrance of the 
river, expecting an attempt to assault them. The 
Chatham, however, shelled her and the entrenchments, 
but the dense palm groves amid which she lay made 
it impossible to tell with what effect. To ensure that 
she should not escape, the Chatham took measures to 
bottle her up; a German East African liner, the Somali, 
was sunk in the mouth of the river, and later the s.s. 
Newbridge was also used for this purpose. This ship 
(Captain Willett) had a cargo of coal on board. She 
was protected aft by sandbags and sacks of coal, and 
her steering gear and engine room were shielded by 
steel sheets so that the Konigsberg's fire might not 
prove too destructive as the Newbridge made her way 
up river. 

The men in the entrenchments on Mafia Island were 
prepared for the coming of the Newbridge. By some 
means the Germans had discovered that she was to be 
sent; and as they were armed with Maxims and quick- 
firers, it looked as though the collier would receive a 
pretty warm reception. She did I 

Lieutenant Lavington, in command, and Captain 
Willett and two other lieutenants were the sole officers 
on board, six or seven bluejackets and a few artificers 
and stokers comprising the crew — a gallant company 
going on a dangerous errand. As soon as the New^ 
bridge got within range the Germans on the island 
began firing, without much effect. Then, having 
passed the island, in spite of a perfect hail of bullets 
and shrapnel, she was moored into the position de- 


Modern Corsairs 281 

cided upon, and the last stages of the work begun. 
Down in her hold were several charges of gun- 
cotton, with an electric wire connected to the launch 
that had followed the ship. Having opened her port 
tank, so that the water might pour in and give the 
Newbridge a list up stream, and make her satisfactorily 
withstand the strong current running, the crew slipped 
into their boats alongside, the connection was set up; 
and there followed three loud explosions. The Newbridge 
sank; and the Konigsberg was effectually bottled up. 

For the men who had hazarded everything on this 
mission the serious task now before them was to get 
back to the open sea ; and to do this they had, of course, 
to pass the island, with its force of Germans. They sped 
back as quickly as they could, meeting a shower of shot, 
which caused considerable damage ; but at last the gant- 
let was run and the intrepid men were safe on board. 

Less than a week later the Konigsberg was sunk. 
As she was hidden by the dense foliage, and had 
taken the precaution of covering herself with leaves, 
the British had, as we have said, much difficulty in 
telling whether the shell fire was effective. In order to 
get the exact position, therefore, an aeroplane, brought 
by the Kinfauns Castle, was used. The whirr of her 
engine, as she reconnoitred over them, told the Germans 
that the end was very near, and they were quite pre- 
pared for the well-placed shots which quickly followed 
the dropping of smoke bombs, signalling the position 
of the lurking cruiser. The great, destructive shells 
smashed into her, wrought havoc all through her, broke 
her as though she had been a cardboard toy ; and very 
soon she sank. The Pegasus had been avenged. 

These two cases are typical of the way the British 
Navy dealt with the modern corsairs and showed Ger- 
many that Britannia still rules the waves. 


THE WRECKERS 

Stories of Human Ghouls 

T here are few things more fiendish to be found 
in the story of the sea than the wholesale system 
of wrecking which was in practice from early times up 
to comparatively recent years. The wreckers were 
nothing less than ghouls who preyed upon mariners 
whom they had lured to destruction. Very severe laws 
were made to deal with them, but it is to be feared 
that they were very ineffective. 

On September ii, 1773, the Charming Jenny, Cap- 
tain Chilcot, was battling bravely against a storm 
off the Isle of Anglesea. For a while all went well, 
and Chilcot thought that he could weather the storm. 
Away in the distance there suddenly appeared lights 
as of ships passing in the night. But, had he known 
it, they were false lights — lanterns tied around horses’ 
necks. Scoundrelly men were leading the horses along 
the cliffheads, taking care that they were near the rocks 
which poked their cruel noses above water. Chilcot, 
taking these lights for those of ships passing in the 
night, steered his vessel towards them, thinking he 
would thereby be safe. 

Then, when it was too late, he discovered his mis- 
take; there was a crunching, grinding noise as the 
Charming Jenny hurled herself on the rocks, and in an 
incredibly short time went to pieces, carrying all her 
crew to destruction with the exception of Chilcot and 

282 


The Wreckers 283 

his wife, who were fortunate in getting on to a piece 
of wreckage, and after some hours of agony and ex- 
posure were washed ashore in an exhausted condition 
and were scarcely able to move. There, on the beach, 
they lay for a while, hoping for succour, instead of 
which there came — the wreckers. These, when they 
were satisfied that their fell work had been successful, 
hurried down from the cliffs and, searching the shore, 
came upon the almost lifeless bodies of the man and 
woman. 

Chilcot they seized and took away, stripped him of 
his clothes, even cut the buckles from his shoes, and 
then left him to shift for himself. His first thought 
was for his wife, and hurrying as fast as he could to 
the shore, he found her — dead. The wreckers had killed 
her and carried away the bank bills and seventy guineas 
she had in her pocket. 

The significant thing about this incident was that 
Chilcot, getting assistance from two kindly people near 
by, put the authorities at work, with the result that three 
men were arrested, and found to be well-to-do folk — one 
of them, indeed, so wealthy that he could offer ;^5,ooo 
bail when he was arraigned at Shrewsbury Assizes ! 
Probably these gentry had fattened on the misfortunes 
of dozens of other unfortunate mariners. 

An incident of wrecking in Cornwall in 1838 is 
typical in many respects. The wreckers in this case 
were the miners of Sennen, who one day noticed a ship 
trying to beat up the Channel against a fierce storm. 
As it was daylight, the miners grumbled at the fate which 
seemed as though it had sent a prize to taunt them, 
for they could not lure the ship to destruction while 
it was light. But knowing, with that instinct of the 
coast-dwellers, that the storm would hold on for some 
time, and that the ship could not hope to make much 


284 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

headway, they set a number of men on watch on the 
cliffs to keep the ship in sight until night fell. Mean- 
while the wreckers went on with their mining. When 
night fell they rushed to the coast, and soon were sent 
to a particularly dangerous part. They carried a 
lantern, which they set on a cliff-head. 

To the mariners on the battling ship it seemed like 
a beacon. Where they had been buffeting blindly 
before, with no light to guide them, now they were 
able to take bearings. The captain set his course by 
the light, but, past masters in their craft, the wreckers 
manipulated the light so that the skipper was deceived, 
and, although he did not know it, he was gradually 
getting closer and closer to the shore. 

Crash ! The ship hit the rocks, and at once realising 
that he had been trapped, the skipper shouted com- 
mands ; men flew to do his bidding, but the ship refused 
to budge ; she was fast on the rocks. 

Then the wreckers fell to work. There were no 
fewer than two thousand of them, and while the captain 
and crew were intent on getting ashore, the wreckers 
busied themselves in taking out everything of value, 
stripping the ship clean. The captain, knowing that 
the fiends had lured him to destruction, rallied his men 
together to oppose them. But what could a handful of 
men do against such a horde ? Although the mariners 
put up a gallant fight, they were defeated and many of 
them cut down. 

Then the coastguard turned up. Again only a hand- 
ful to oppose thousands, who, in possession of a rich 
prize, were determined nothing should rob them of it. 
So there was another fight, fierce hand-to-hand tussles 
at first, for the coastguards did not wish to kill; then, 
when the wreckers began to menace their very lives, 
the coastguards opened fire. This only enraged the 


The Wreckers 285 

wreckers more, and they fell upon the officers, who 
were at last driven off, unable to cope with the force 
arrayed against them. 

Then the wreckers completed their fell work. 

In 1731 — during the reign of George II., that is — 
there sailed from Copenhagen a Danish East Indiaman, 
the Golden Lion, with a valuable cargo, including twelve 
large chests of silver valued at about ;^i6,ooo. Captain 
Heitman, of the Golden Lion, after encountering bad 
weather in the Channel and being driven northward to 
the Kerry coast, at last put into the Bay of Tralee, near 
the northern shore of which there lies another bay, called 
the Bay of Ballyheigue, abounding with sunken rocks 
and sandbanks, a place of terror to mariners. 

How it happened is not clear, but on October 28 
the Golden Lion entered this treacherous bay. It has 
been asserted that the men of Kerry lured her by false 
lights, though they vowed their innocence. In any case, 
the Golden Lion was in a serious fix, and the only way 
to save the crew was for Captain Heitman to steer his 
ship ashore. This he did, and succeeded in saving the 
sixty men comprising the crew, and also the ;^i6,ooo 
of silver and various other things, though the Golden 
Lion herself became a total wreck. 

To the credit of the Kerry men be it said that for 
a long time the Danes were hospitably treated by them ; 
the officers were housed at Ballyheigue House, and their 
treasure was allowed to be stored in an old tower, at the 
south-west corner of the court belonging to the house. 
The crew were taken in to billet at various houses round 
about. Meanwhile, Heitman sent news to London and 
Copenhagen of his misfortune ; but it would appear that 
these never reached their destination, being held up in 
Ballyheigue, and the Danes had to wait long, and as 
patiently as they could, for news that never came» 


286 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

Then there began to be a change in the attitude of 
the Kerry men. Thomas Crosbie, owner of Ballyheigue 
House, died, and a relative named Arthur Crosbie came 
to the help of his widow and mother, executors of the 
late host. Now, Arthur Crosbie was a queer customer — 
hard up, crafty, always with his nose in other people’s 
business. . He felt that the Danes should be made to 
pay something out of their hoard for all the hospitality 
shown them. Heitman, nothing averse to doing so, ob- 
jected, however, to the charges put down by Crosbie — 
namely, ;^4,ooo — and he sent a letter of complaint 
— though how it got through goodness only knows 
— to Dublin. The authorities at Dublin sent back a 
message that the Danes were not to be imposed upon ; 
and Crosbie knew that he had been foiled. 

But only in one direction, for his crafty mind soon 
set to work to devise a plan whereby he could get some 
of that treasure in the vaults beneath the square tower 
of Ballyheigue House; and he was not alone in his 
plotting, for others of the Kerry men were of much the 
same mind as he was. 

A pretty plot was in the way of being hatched. 

A man named Cantillon (a distant relative of the 
Crosbies) started things seriously. He conferred with 
David Lawlor, who kept an inn at Tralee, in April, 
1732, and the result of their confab was that they paid 
a visit to the farm at Beinaree belonging to the 
Protestant Archdeacon of Ardfert, the Rev. Francis 
Lauder, who was also a J.P. The plotters told their 
scheme to one named Ryan, tithe-proctor and steward 
to the archdeacon, and he eagerly threw in his lot with 
them. The prize was worth it. He promised to do his 
best to get other helpers, and that night he tackled John 
Kevane, a labourer on the farm. 

Now, Kevane was wary; he was not at all opposed 


The Wreckers 287 

to the plot, but he wanted to be sure that it had sub- 
stantial backing in the shape of “the gentlemen of the 
county.” Ryan was evasive on this point. 

“I’m going to see the master,” he said, “and feel 
sure that the gentry will consent to it.” But Kevane 
was not at all convinced, and reserved his opinion. 

Having so far committed himself, Ryan naturally 
had to follow the matter up with Kevane and get him 
into the plot, lest he gave information; and next day 
he tried again to persuade him. 

“ If the gentry are really in it,” said Kevane at last, 
“then some of them ought to appear in it, so as to 
spirit up the folk.” 

“We can’t ask them to do that,” answered Ryan 
craftily; “it would hardly do. But I can tell you, 
Kevane, that their servants are going to help us.” 

This sounded reasonable to Kevane, who therefore 
agreed to enter into the conspiracy, and very soon 
Cantillon, Lawlor, and Ryan found themselves with a 
fairly respectable (or disreputable) following, including 
William Banner, the butler, and Richard Ball, the 
steward at Ballyheigue, Captain Stephen Macmahon, 
and John Malony, his mate. 

There was one other man Cantillon was anxious to 
have in with him. This was Denis Cahane, a poor 
smallholder at Kilgobbin, who refused at first, but at 
last asked time to think it over. Thinking it over, he 
felt he would like advice, and, having been told that 
the gentry were in it, had a talk with his landlord, 
Mr. John Carrick, a J.P. The magistrate soon put 
Cahane right, and told him to have nothing to do with 
the matter, and the poor chap gave his promise. 

“Keep it quiet, sir,” he said tremblingly, “or they’ll 
kill me for an informer ! ” 

Cahane knew Cantillon and his roguish comrades ! 


288 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

The following Sunday, May i6th, Cantillon was 
coming for Cahane’s answer, and the smallholder, 
worried almost to death, interviewed the Protestant vicar 
in the morning, after the service at Kilgobbin. To 
him he poured out his story, asking him to keep his 
informant’s name secret. The vicar promised, and then 
went to see Mr. Carrick, whom he asked to warn Lady 
Margaret Crosbie of the plot, so that she might put the 
Danes upon their guard. Carrick promised, and then 
broke his word; whereupon, some days later, the vicar 
himself called upon Lady Margaret and told the whole 
of the tale. 

Lady Margaret thanked him, and promised to warn 
the Danes and get them to remove the chests of silver 
from the vault to her house, where it would be quite 
safe. 

As a matter of fact, the good kind lady was in the 
plot, and she did not warn the Danes. The conspirators 
were able, therefore, to set about maturing their plans 
which, with so many people concerned, it is not surpris- 
ing became common knowledge amongst the peasants, 
rumours even reaching Tralee Custom House, whence 
Heitman was advised to obtain a guard of troops from 
Tralee barracks. 

One would have thought that, in view of this in- 
formation, Heitman would have taken every precaution; 
but he did not. Instead of applying for soldiers he 
contented himself with asking Lady Margaret to let him 
have some of the arms which had been put under lock 
and key when the Golden Lion was wrecked ; and when 
his request was refused, and yet another that he might 
gather all his crew into the ground floor of the square 
tower, he apparently shrugged his shoulders and let the 
matter slide ! 

Then Dick Ball turned traitor; he confided to one 


The Wreckers 289 

of the Danes, John Suchdorf, that there was going to 
be an attempt to steal the silver. But for sheer foolish- 
ness these mariners want beating. Suchdorf shrugged 
his shoulders, laughed all over his honest face, and told 
Ball it was a really fine joke he was trying to play on 
him ! And he doesn’t even seem to have told the 
captain, though perhaps it would have done no good 
if he had. 

It came about, then, that when the plotters con- 
sidered the time ripe everything was clear. The day 
determined on was June 5, when Lady Margaret had a 
few friends come to her house on a visit. 

At dinner that evening Captain Heitman and his 
officers were invited to join the party, probably to keep 
them out of the way, for while the convivialities were 
in progress our old friend Suchdorf noticed that three 
men were prowling about the foot of the square tower; 
and a little later saw Lawlor and a companion go into 
Ballyheigue House. In view of what he had been told 
previously, had Suchdorf been anything but a muddle- 
headed man, he would have suspected what was afoot 
and rushed off to Captain Heitman ; but he did nothing, 
said nothing, not even when, about seven o’clock, he 
came upon Ball and Malony and three or four others 
gathered about the tower. So the plot, which was 
coming to a head, was allowed to progress unimpeded, 
and soon after midnight, when everyone had retired to 
rest, there was a fine hullabaloo — guns were firing, men 
were shouting, women screaming, and doors being 
banged, opened and shut noisily as folk awoke. 

The work was in hand ! 

When they were sure that the people were in bed 
the conspirators had rushed the tower, and, with cutlass 
and pistol, had fallen upon the sentries which Heitman 
always had there. There was a stiff, stern fight for a 

T 


290 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

short while, and two of the sentries fell to the ground, 
dead, the third managing to get away, wounded and 
bleeding, to arouse Suchdorf and his other comrades. 
Suchdorf now began to realise that there had been 
something in Ball’s story, and, jumping out of bed, he 
dashed down to the door, followed by Alexander Foster, 
Peter Mingard, and George Jenesen. They put up a 
fine show, and succeeded in forcing the thieves out of 
the tower and fastening the door; after which they 
hurried upstairs and, looking out of a window, saw “a 
great multitude, whose faces were blacked.” 

Here was a fine to do ; the whole countryside seemed 
to be come out against them, and the four men had only 
a case of arms and one gun amongst them, and only 
enough powder and ball for one charge ! They con- 
ferred amongst themselves, and realising that they 
could make but little resistance, and that futile, they 
would be better not to make any at all, lest *‘it might 
be the means to have them murdered.” 

Meanwhile, in Ballyheigue House all was excite- 
ment. Heitman, hearing the noise, and realising that 
his silver was perhaps in danger after all, dashed down- 
stairs, to find the hall filled with the guests and other 
occupants of the house. 

“My silver ! ” he cried. “It is being stolen ! Help 
me to drive the thieves off ! ” He hurled himself at 
the door, trying to pull back the bolts. Before he could 
do this, however, Lady Margaret, crafty woman that she 
was, threw herself in front of him, and beseeched him 
not to be foolhardy ! 

“They will kill you ! ” she cried. “Stay here ! ” 

And Heitman stayed, while away over at the tower 
things were moving pretty briskly. The conspirators 
had forced their way in, and, working like Titans, got 
all the silver-chests out, and by various means took them 


291 


The Wreckers 

into certain places previously arranged. The holy 
Lauder, archdeacon and magistrate, had considerately 
lent his chaise and horses, and these bore away three 
of the chests to his farm, where they were broken open 
and their contents divided amongst the thieves. Six 
chests were left at Ballyheigue, to be shared later; one 
was carried to Tralee for the same purpose, but was 
afterwards seized by the soldiers; and two others were 
hidden safely at Ballygown. 

And the Lady Margaret and her family received half 
the proceeds ! 

Poor Captain Heitman ! When it was too late he 
called for the aid of the authorities; and although the 
soldiers managed to seize the chest that was taken to 
Tralee, and though Heitman offered a tenth part of 
the treasure to anyone who would give information that 
would lead to the recovery of the treasure, all he ever 
got back was some ;^4,ooo. A good part of it probably 
went across the seas in Malony’s ship. 

Justice was very tardy; after many weeks nine or 
ten of the thieves were caught, though only three were 
convicted. One was hanged, but a second cheated the 
gallows by committing suicide ; and the third was 
pardoned, because Heitman thought he might turn 
King’s evidence, as did some of the others who were 
caught. Seeing that the “gentry” were in it, it is 
not surprising that justice was tardy, and that Heitman 
was kept in Ireland until the autumn of 1735, waiting 
for justice and his treasure — and got neither. 

Whether the Kerry men had lured the Golden Lion 
to her destruction or not, there is no doubt that they 
were of the family of wreckers. 

It was in 1817 — on February 19, to be precise — that 
the Inverness went ashore in the Shannon, through her 


292 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

captain mistaking Rinevaha for Carrigaholt. Every- 
thing would have been all right, and the ship been 
able to float at the next spring-tide, had not the peasants 
considered it too good a chance to throw away. It was 
like turning good luck away ! So, banding themselves 
together, they went down to the shore, boarded the 
Inverness, and, their numbers being large and their 
methods none too gentle, succeeded in scuttling the 
ship and tearing away all her rigging, having taken the 
precaution of sending to shore the barrels of pork and 
other provisions with which the vessel was loaded. Then 
they robbed the crew — even to their shirts, which they 
used as bags to carry their plunder in ! 

The news spread, and next day the police appeared 
on the scene, and found the peasants still hard at work 
collecting their salvage. Although there were only 
twelve policemen, a sergeant and the chief constable, 
they pluckily threw themselves into the fray, routed the 
wreckers, and stood guard over the provisions that still 
remained on shore. All night they kept their vigil ; 
but with the coming of dawn they found themselves 
surrounded by thousands of peasants. Angry at being 
robbed of their prey, the wreckers had aroused the 
countryside, determined to get back what they had lost. 

They advanced in three companies, shouting threats, 
waving hats, cheering— to keep their spirits up, prob- 
ably — and vowed they would have the salvage as well 
as the arms of the police guard. Although they knew 
they had a ticklish job in front of them, those police- 
men were staunch and bold; they refused to be intimi- 
dated. Forming into one body, they faced the three 
mobs and waited for them to come on. They came on ; 
and there ensued a miniature battle; sticks and stones 
were flung at the police, the wreckers charged down 
upon them with scythes and axes, and the police replied 


The Wreckers 293 

by firing their pistols. But it was all in vain ; the mob 
was overwhelming in numbers, and the chief constable 
saw that they could not hold out very long. He must 
have help. 

Off went one of the policemen, a mounted man, 
making for Limerick, pursued by fleet-footed men, 
who, however, were soon left behind. In less than 
two hours he returned with Major Warburton and a 
body of twenty cavalry, with infantry behind them. 
They dashed down upon the shore, to find that the 
police had been compelled to retire, which they had done 
in an orderly manner, and that the wreckers were once 
more upon the Inverness, hard at it breaking it up. 
Warburton and his men boarded it; a hatchet blow 
narrowly missed the major, who promptly turned and 
presented his pistol at the would-be murderer, and so 
scared him that he flung himself overboard. But he 
did not escape, for one of the soldiers charged at him 
as he waded ashore and cut him down. 

The wreckers now saw that they had brought a 
hornet’s nest about their ears, and began to think of 
escaping. They flew for their lives, pursued by the 
soldiers, who wounded some and took many prisoners. 

The thoroughness of the wreckers’ work may be 
gauged by the fact that only nine barrels of pork were 
saved, and that the bowsprit, gaff, and spars of the 
ship had been stolen ; all her sails and rigging had been 
taken away, her anchors and cables — and even her 
pump ! 

An extract from an old book gives in the words of 
one present a picture of another wreckers’ incident : 

“On Friday, October 27, 1811, the galliot Anna 
Hulk Klas Boyr, Meinerty, master, from Christian 
Sound, laden with deals, for Killala, was driven ashore 
at a place called Porturlin, between Killala and Broad- 


294 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

haven. The captain and crew providentially saved their 
lives by jumping on shore on a small island or rock. 
At this time the stern and quarter were stove in. The 
crew remained two hours on the rock, when they were 
taken off by a boat and brought to the mainland. 

“Shortly after, the captain’s trunk, with all the 
sailors’ clothes in general, came on shore, which the 
country people immediately began to plunder, leaving 
the unfortunate wreck. Then they cut away all they 
could come at of the sails, rigging, etc., while hun- 
dreds were taking away the deals to all parts of the 
country. Though the captain spoke good English, and 
most pitifully inquired to whom he might apply for 
assistance, yet he could not hear of any for fourteen 
hours, when he was told that Major Denis Bingham 
was the nearest and only person he could apply to. 
With much difficulty he procured a guide, and pro- 
ceeded to Mr. Bingham’s, a distance of twenty miles 
through the mountains. 

“In the meantime, after thirty-six hours’ conceal- 
ment of this very melancholy circumstance. Captain 
Morris, of the Townshead cruiser, who lay at Broad- 
haven, a distance of about ten miles from the wreck, 
heard of it, and approaching it landed with twenty men 
well armed. In coming near the wreck he first fired 
in the air, in order to disperse the peasantry, which 
had no effect; he therefore ordered his men to fire 
close, which had the desired effect, when he immediately 
pursued them into the interior, from three to five miles 
distance, dividing his party in different directions, when, 
by great exertion and fatigue, they saved about i,8oo 
deals and a remnant of the wreck. 

“Captain Morris had some of the robbers taken, 
but, his party being so scattered, they were rescued 
by a large mob of the country people.” 


THE TRAGEDY OF A WONDER SHIP 

The Story of the “Titanic” Disaster 

O N Wednesday, April lo, 1912, there steamed out 
of Southampton the largest boat in the world — 
a wonder ship, a veritable floating palace. She was 
bound for America. It was her first voyage, and it 
was her last, for five days later, from out the night, 
there loomed the white form of a gigantic iceberg, which 
crashed into her starboard side; and the Titanic and 
most of the people aboard her had entered upon their 
last two hours of life. 

There is a magic in figures, but even those which 
tell of the size of the giant ship fail to carry the tale 
of her greatness. Still, they must be given in order 
to show how this mammoth of the ocean was as a pygmy 
in the grip of the elemental forces. 

She was a three-screw vessel of 46,328 tons gross 
and 21,831 tons net. Her length was 852 feet, and her 
breadth 92 feet. From top of keel to top of beam she 
was 64 feet, while her hold was almost 60 feet deep. Her 
horse-power was 50,000. She was pronounced unsink- 
able, having fifteen water-tight bulkheads and a water- 
tight inner bottom, extending nearly the whole breadth 
of the vessel, and several other water-tight divisions. 
She was fitted with six independent sets of boilers, 
wireless telegraphy, submarine signalling, electric 
lights and power systems; telephones and telegraphs 
communicated between the various working positions; 

295 


296 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

three electric elevators were installed to carry passengers 
from one deck to another; and every appliance neces- 
sary to enable the ship’s officers to ascertain depth of 
water, speed of the vessel, and a hundred and one other 
things, were provided, while life-saving appliances to 
the requirements of the Board of Trade were included 
in her equipment. There were concert-rooms, smoking- 
rooms, swimming baths, tennis courts, restaurant, 
libraries — everything in the way of modern luxury. 

And yet when the crash came to this floating palace, 
this realisation of the shipwright’s dreams, out of the 
2,201 souls she carried, only 71 1 were saved — a tragic 
comment upon the impotence of man against the forces 
of Nature. 

The Titanic sailed from Southampton to Cherbourg, 
from Cherbourg to Queenstown, then across the Atlantic 
by the then accepted outward-bound route for New 
York, her passengers amazed at the luxury of the 
wonder ship which was bearing them to the New 
World. The first two or three days were uneventful, 
and on the 14th the magnificent lounge was turned into 
a scene of fairy delight for a gala dinner. Beautiful 
music filled the lounge and filtered through to other 
parts of the ship ; well dressed men and women sat and 
talked, or strolled about after dinner in the camaraderie 
of fellow-voyagers, all unsuspecting of the catastrophe 
that was hastening down upon them from out the dark- 
ness of the night. 

Earlier in the day a wireless message had been 
received from s.s. Caronia, informing Captain Smith 
that “West-bound steamers report bergs, growlers, and 
field ice in 42° N. from 49° W., April 12,” the Titanic 
then being about latitude 43° 35' N. and longitude 
43° 50' W. This was at 9 a.m., and at 1.42 p.m., when 
the vessel was about 42° 35' N., 45° 50' W., another 


The Tragedy of a Wonder Ship 297 

wireless message was received, this time from s.s. Baltic, 
saying that “large quantities of field ice” had been 
seen that day in 41° 51' N., longitude 49° 52' W. 

In order to understand the significance of all these 
warnings, flashed across the ether, it is necessary to 
remember the following facts : 

Icebergs are gigantic masses of Polar glacier carried 
out to sea, only about one-eighth of their mass being 
above the surface. 

Growlers are small icebergs. 

Field ice is frozen sea-water floating in a looser form 
than pack ice, covering large areas of the Polar seas, 
broken up into large pieces, driven together by current 
and wind, thus forming an almost continuous sheet of 
ice. 

All these forms of ice masses are dangerous to ship- 
ping, and the ocean routes were mapped out so that 
vessels might be able to steer clear of them. As a matter 
of fact, although icebergs and field ice had been seen 
as far south before, it was many years since field ice had 
been observed so far south as at the time of the Titanic 
disaster. Two further messages were received on the 
ship during the day, one of them giving news of large 
icebergs; but, except for the officers and men whose 
watch it was, everybody on board the Titanic turned 
into bed, to dream of wonderful things, no doubt, and 
to wake up to a nightmare of horror. 

Suddenly the stillness of the vast vessel was broken 
by a thudding crash, a ripping of steel plates. Some- 
thing had happened. Some heard the sound — those in 
the steerage, who were near that portion of the ship 
which was a city, and those officers who were on deck 
and the bridge. The rest, asleep, lulled into the land 
of dreams by the motion of the ship, were awakened by 
the strange feeling of stillness that suddenly pervaded 


298 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

everything ; there was no longer the throb of the engines ; 
the vibration of the ship ceased, and people were roused 
by the utter emptiness of things, as it seemed. Heads 
popped out of cabins and state-rooms, people strolled 
up corridors asking each other “Why ? ” and “What ? ” 
and so forth; and getting no answer that meant any- 
thing except assurances that all was well — all must be 
well ! Was not this the safest vessel in the world ? And 
so they went back to bed. 

But other people, those whose duty it was to keep 
awake, to have their fingers upon the pulse, as it were, 
of this leviathan, did not sleep. First Officer Murdoch 
and his watch were on the bridge; the captain was in 
his room. Murdoch, peering through the blue-blackness 
of night, had seen a haze before the ship, and, quick 
to realise what was before them, he issued sharp com- 
mands, which were obeyed instantly; but all too late. 
That haze resolved itself into ice — a massive, towering 
mountain of ice — into which the Titanic* s bows cut their 
way. The ice that the ether waves had been telling 
about all day had loomed out upon them like a spectre 
in the night; nay, like the impersonation of Death. 

Captain Smith rushed to the bridge when he felt the 
ship stop. 

“We have struck ice, sir,” was the first officer’s 
reply to his question. 

“Close the water-tight doors!” was the captain’s 
order, only to be told that this had already been done. 
A movement of switches, and Murdoch had set bells 
a-tingling and great steel doors a-sliding in their 
grooves; bells to warn anyone that the doors were being 
closed, so that they might not be cut off. 

But no closing of water-tight doors was to be suffi- 
cient to save this giant ship. The damage wrought by 
that white, translucent mass ran over a length of some 


The Tragedy of a Wonder Ship 299 

three hundred feet, and it had all been done in — one 
trembles to write it — ten seconds. Twenty knots an 
hour had the vessel been travelling, and in ten seconds 
she had ripped her way along the ice for three hundred 
feet, tearing her plates apart as though they had been 
brown paper, and letting the water in in tons. 

The carpenter sounded the ship ; Phillips, the 
Marconi operator, was instructed to get ready to send 
out a call for assistance, in case it was wanted. The 
carpenter made his report; and, because of its char- 
acter, Captain Smith went back to the Marconi room, 
and messages were sent out to all steamers within reach. 
Still later, but only by a few minutes, the C Q D and 
the S O S — international signalsj for help — ^were dis- 
patched, to be followed by : 

“We have struck a berg! Come at once!” 
Seventy-eight miles away that message was picked up 
by the Carpathian which answered : “Coming at once ! ” 

And, meanwhile, what of the population of the 
floating palace whose vitals were being swamped by 
hundreds of tons of water? She was listing heavily to 
starboard. In various parts of the ship a few people 
were still awake, asking what was afoot, for none had 
yet been told what had taken place. If there is one 
thing the master of a vessel dreads it is panic, and 
passengers must be kept in ignorance while there is 
a chance to obviate the danger. But rumours floated 
here and there. “We’ve struck an iceberg,” said one 
now and again; and, as if that were nothing to be 
alarmed about, folks shrugged their shoulders and 
turned into bed. So sure was everyone of the safety 
of this masterpiece of science and industry that the 
thought of danger never entered their heads. 

It was a fine joke, apparently, to have struck an 
iceberg, and a berg was a rare sight to most of those 


300 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

people, who thought more of that than of the ship. 
The great spectral mass was a thing of wonder; its 
towering peak told them something of its gigantic size, 
since but one-eighth of it showed above the surface. 
“What a corker ! ’’ said someone, and then went to 
bed. 

Meanwhile, firemen were coming up from below ; 
and each set who came up reported that the water was 
pouring into their stokeholds. 

Captain Smith, convinced by the list of the ship 
that there was indeed grave danger — she was very much 
down by the head, and diving now and again at the 
rate of six or twelve inches — gave instructions that the 
passengers should be gathered on the boat-decks; and 
the inhabitants of the “safest ship in the world” re- 
ceived the command that could have but one meaning, 
namely, that the vessel was in danger of going down. 
Through miles of corridors and companion-ways 
stewards raced with the news, rousing folk from the 
sleep of peace to the nightmare of reality, yet careful, 
every one of them, not to cause panic. Reassuring, 
optimistic, with unquenchable faith in the unsinkable- 
ness of the boat, they told the passengers who asked 
questions that they thought everything would be all 
right. 

“The Board of Trade regulations say that in times 
of danger the passengers must put on lifebelts,” said 
one steward; “and even if the boat should sink, she 
will be able to keep up for forty-eight hours at least.” 

Those words are a picture of the attitude of wellnigh 
everybody on the Titanic, which was, as a matter of 
fact, within the last minutes of her life; but, obeying 
the call, they trooped up in their scores and hundreds 
to the decks. Some grumbled at being brought from 
warm beds to a cold, ice-strewn deck ; others grumbled 



“ Men, strong-limbed, full-blooded, with the zest and the love of life in them 
stood calmly by” (see page 301) 










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The Tragedy of a Wonder Ship 301 

at the stringency of the British Board of Trade. Im- 
agine the scene, if you can : long lines of stewards 
guarding the boats; a mighty crowd of men, women, 
and children, some dressed, others half dressed, more 
with only a blanket thrown about their night-clothes, 
dozens of them struggling into lifebelts. Many were 
now anxious-eyed as, inexperienced as they were, they 
saw that awful list to starboard, saw the tense looks on 
the faces of some of the officers who knew. 

The women and children, now mustered on the boat- 
deck, were waiting while the lifeboats and collapsible 
boats were got ready, for the tragic cry of the sea, 
“ Women and children first ! ” had rung out ; and men, 
strong-limbed, full-blooded, with the zest and the love 
of life in them, stood calmly by and smoked while this 
was done, telling themselves even now that the boat 
could not sink. 

Boat crews were shipped; and then the craft were 
swung out, though not without trouble, seeing that, 
being new, the tackle was not easy to work; and the 
women and children, ill-clad to withstand the rigours 
of that bitter night, were helped into the boats and 
lowered away, out of the floating palace they had 
thought so safe into a wide expanse of sea, with all its 
possible dangers. Some women, indeed, refused to 
leave the ship ; they would not go without their 
husbands, pleaded that they be allowed to come. Like 
heroes, the men refused to go, and so husbands and 
wives stayed on the ship of death. 

While the work of embarking these helpless people 
was proceeding officers stood ready with revolvers, lest 
the passion for life seize the men and send them rush- 
ing towards the boats. There was only one rush ; some 
poor steerage passengers, foreigners, who had been near 
enough to the point of impact with the iceberg to realise 


302 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

the terror of it all, charged down upon one boat. An 
officer stopped them with a couple of shots, and strong 
hands pulled them back. Their places were taken in 
the boat by their wives and children, for, in this time 
of disaster, social distinctions were forgotten, cast aside 
like the trappings of life that they are, and rich women 
and poor, ragged and well dressed, old and young, 
were herded together in the same boat — companions in 
distress. The rich man’s child was cuddled to some 
poor woman’s bosom; the offspring of some “down 
and out ” nestled in the arms of a bejewelled dame of 
high society. 

The work went on, the heartrending scene in this 
tragedy of the sea was played through to the accom- 
paniment of the noise of escaping steam, the sobbing 
of wives and children as they said farewell to husbands 
and fathers, and the peculiar noise that a crowd makes 
in circumstances of stress; while from various parts of 
the ship there were the sounds of rockets being fired, 
brilliant appeals for help which cast strange lights 
round and about the doomed vessel. And more, this 
drama had its own music; floating up from below came 
the sounds of piano and orchestra playing lively tunes, 
which cheered the leaving women and the staying men, 
who cried to each other: “Au revoir ! We’ll meet in 
New York ! ” 

Down, down, down, seventy feet or more the boats 
were lowered, some having to pass the exhaust of the 
condensers, and running the risk of being swamped. 
An incident connected with one of these boats is worth 
mentioning. It was described by Mr. Beezley, a school- 
master, who was in her as helper. There were no 
officers on board to help them work the boat, and no 
petty officer or member of the crew to take charge ; and 
when it was seen that the boat was in danger of being 


The Tragedy of a Wonder Ship 303 

swamped by the water from the exhaust, one of the 
stokers cried: “Someone find the pin which releases 
the boat from the ropes and pull it up ! ” No one knew 
where it was. “We felt,” said Mr. Beezley, “as well 
as we could on the floor and along the sides, but found 
nothing. It was difficult to move among so many 
people. We had sixty or seventy on board. Down we 
went, and presently we were floating with our ropes 
still holding us, and the stream of water from the ex- 
haust washing us away from the side of the vessel, while 
the swell of the sea urged us back against the side 
again. 

“The result of all these forces was that we were 
carried parallel to the ship’s side, and directly under 
Boat 14, which had filled rapidly, and was coming 
down on us in a way that threatened to submerge our 
boat. 

“‘Stop lowering 14!’ our crew shouted; and the 
crew of No. 14, now only twenty feet above, cried out 
the same. The distance to the top, however, was some 
seventy feet, and the creaking of the pulleys must have 
deadened all sound to those above, for down she came, 
fifteen feet, ten feet, five feet, and a stoker and I reached 
up and touched the bottom of the swinging boat above 
our heads. The next drop would have brought her on 
our heads. Just before she dropped another stoker 
sprang to the ropes with open knife in hand. ‘ One,’ 
I heard him say; and then ‘Two,’ as the knife cut 
through the pulley ropes.” 

Almost immediately the exhaust stream carried the 
boat clear, and the other boat slipped into the water, 
on exactly the same spot that the first one had occu- 
pied. It was indeed a narrow shave, for the two boats 
almost rubbed gunwales. 

Leaving the boats as they are being got away, let 


304 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

US go to some other part of the ship to see what is 
happening. 

Down below, in the engine-room and stokeholds, 
begrimed heroes were working hard at their duty. The 
black squad always occupies the most dangerous place 
in a ship at such times ; and to the credit of these men, 
who are hidden from the gaze of the people who stroll 
leisurely about decks, or while away the hours in 
concert room or card room, let it be said that they rarely 
fail in the moment of danger. On the Titanic, those 
men whose engine-rooms and stokeholds had not been 
flooded, and who knew they would be wanted, stayed 
below ; the engines in the principal engine-room, which 
was still protected by its bulkhead, must be run to keep 
the pumps working and the dynamos running which 
supplied the electricity for light and the wireless. If 
the pumps could be kept going, then the vessel could 
float long enough for help to come ; if the wireless could 
be kept working, then help could be appealed for across 
the ether waves; and while the men below strove, some 
at drawing fires to prevent explosions, others at stoking 
fires that were safe, up in the Marconi cabin two men 
were sticking to their posts. The men, Phillips and 
Bride, were heroes, and their names will be remembered 
while men remember the story of the Titanic, 

They had sent out the first messages for assistance — 
SOS, the new call for ships at sea, changing it occa- 
sionally to C Q D, the old signal. Then, when things 
grew more serious than ever, and the news was brought 
down to them, the instruments began to buzz but longer 
messages, that told ships scores of miles away what had 
happened, and what was happening. And now and 
again there came a voice from the ether through the 
apparatus on the operators’ heads, telling them that 
the signals had been caught, and that this ship and that 


The Tragedy of a Wonder Ship 305 

ship was coming at full speed. From seventy miles 
away the Carpathians operator sent such a message ; from 
300 miles away the Olympic also sent her message 
saying that she was coming. And thus it went on, 
this long-distance conversation on which so much de- 
pended, and which might stop at any moment, for the 
captain had told Phillips and Bride that the dynamos 
might not be able to hold out very long. It was the last 
quarter of an hour, and Phillips, forgetting all about 
himself, refusing to think of escape, stood to his work, 
tapping out the messages, urging the rushing ships to 
put on every ounce of steam. And Bride, no less a hero, 
bethought him of Phillips’s safety. He went and got 
their lifebelts, put one on Phillips and one on himself. 

Captain Smith looked in just then, and said : “Men, 
you have done your full duty; you can do no more I 
Abandon your cabin now. It is every man for him- 
self. Look out for yourselves. I release you.” 

“But Phillips clung on,” said Bride, “sending, 
sending. He clung on for about ten minutes after the 
captain released him. The water was then coming ir^to 
our cabin.” 

A hero ? Every inch a hero and a man ! But what 
of another man? The one who, creeping silently into 
that cabin, where a man stood hazarding his life, 
juggling with death, lest haply he might do some good 
for that helpless crowd above, tried to slip the lifebelt 
from the hero’s back ? What of that man ? He had 
had a lifebelt himself, but, too scared to fetch it, had 
thought of an easier way. Bride, catching him in the 
act, had a desire for blood. “I suddenly felt a passion 
not to let that man die a decent sailor’s death,” he said. 
“I wished he might have stretched a rope or walked a 
plank. I did my duty. I hope I finished him; but I 
do not know.” 
u 


3o 6 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

Phillips went down with the ship he had tried to 
save. Bride, more fortunate, came through alive, as will 
be seen. He reached the deck just as the end came. 
The last boat had gone — ^and there remained on the 
ship some fifteen hundred souls, hundreds of them cling- 
ing now in terror to each other. The gay tunes of the 
orchestra changed to the solemn strains of a hymn. 
Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the starboard was sink- 
ing, dipping deeper and deeper, the stern rising 
higher and higher, hundreds of people being clustered 
there, waiting for they dared not think what. The 
full terror of it all was now beginning to sink into 
minds that had refused to accept the possibility of 
disaster. The water lapped up higher and higher, and 
men scrambled up the sloping deck, seeking to outrace 
the water, which soon covered the bridge and carried 
the captain away from the ship, holding in his arm 
some poor, lonely babe who had been forgotten in the 
hurly-burly. “Boys ! ” he had cried lustily ere he went, 
unwillingly, for he would have stayed by his boat but 
for that wave that washed him overboard. “Boys, you 
can do no more I Look out for yourselves ! And 
men prepared to cast themselves into the sea, realising 
now that there was no hope to be found in this ship 
on which so many hopes had been set. But, instead of 
jumping, they now found themselves compelled to hang 
on like grim death to anything that was at hand — rails, 
stanchions, deck-houses, ropes — to save themselves from 
being washed away, for the stern was now towering 
high above the water, and the deck seemed like a sheer 
precipice, down which one might slip — to death. 

Imagine the sight. A massive hulk, gleaming with 
a thousand lights, belching forth showers of sparks 
from a solitary funnel ; a crowd of clinging figures ; a 
crowd of figures, unable to cling, sliding down that 


The Tragedy of a Wonder Ship 307 

Steel road to death. Imagine the sounds. Hear the 
thud and the crash of the engines as, overbalanced, 
they tore themselves from their beds and hurled them- 
selves across the ship, to pound against the steel sides 
and burst them with a deadening explosion; hear the 
horrific cracks as the decks bend; hear, from under 
water, a mighty explosion, followed quickly by another 
and another; hear the roar as the fire-spouting funnel 
tumbles into the sea; hear, above all, the cry torn from 
a thousand throats as the people on the stern of the 
boat felt the last tremors, the death-struggles of the 
leviathan 1 Imagine this sight and these sounds, and 
if you have the imagination of a Poe you will not have 
glimpsed a hundredth part of the terrors of that last 
two minutes of the life of the Titanic, 

And the next minute there was no Titanic afloat; 
but the sea was dotted about with hundreds of black 
dots, each dot a soul struggling for life, each striving 
to reach something that might be floating near it — 
deck-chairs, gratings, wreckage of all sorts, and every 
little bit worth its weight in gold to him who might 
be so fortunate as to get it. To follow all these people 
in their efforts for life is, of course, impossible. And 
there is no need, for each was but a picture of the other. 

Mr. Lightoller, the second officer, had a remarkable 
experience. As the ship took her final plunge he had 
dived, to be drawn down against the grating that 
covered the blower of the exhaust. An explosion hurled 
him up to the surface again, where, having barely filled 
his lungs, he was sucked down again, and drawn to 
the side of the sinking ship, near the funnel draught 
pipes. Yet once more was he blown upwards by the 
force of a terrific explosion, and when he came to the 
surface he found himself near a collapsible boat ; 
Lightoller clung to this, to which Bride himself and 


3 o 8 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

half a dozen other people were also hanging. It was 
capsized; but it provided some sort of refuge. 

The gallant captain, who had gone overboard with 
the baby in his arms, fought his way through the 
swimming crowd, making for one of the boats which 
were still in the vicinity, hoping to effect some rescues. 
He went, not to save himself, but the child. He reached 
the boat, cried “Take the child,” handed it up to the 
willing hands outstretched for it, and then, refusing to 
be taken into the. boat, cried “Let me go ! ” and swam 
back to where the ship had disappeared. 

There were many acts of heroism in that dreadful 
sea. A man swam up to the capsized lifeboat, now 
overladen. “Will it hold another?” he asked. Those 
men on the boat knew, positively, that if one more man 
were on her, she would pitch them all off, and they said 
so, not jealously, not selfishly. And as unselfishly, the 
man who wanted to live cried : “ All right ! Good-bye ! 
God bless you all ! ” Ahd turned away, only to sink 
almost immediately. 

Another man, clinging to a crate, heard someone 
ask: “Will it hold another?” He did not know; 
all he knew was that here was a man who loved life as 
he himself loved it ; and the crate might offer a chance. 
“Try it ! ” he cried ; “we’ll live or die together ! ” 

The story of the great disaster is told, and yet there 
are some things which cannot be recounted — horrors, 
endings and partings. Into the Great Unknown many 
hundreds had gone. Fewer hundreds were saved by 
those giant ships rushing to their aid, brought by the 
call out of the vast silences of the night. 

The appalling horror of it all staggered the world; 
but the great fact stood out that Man the Ingenious 
is no match for Nature the Mighty ! 


MYSTERIES OF THE SEA 

Strange Disappearances of Ships at Sea 

T T is only to be expected that the sea, with all its 
glory and wonders, its tragedies and its romances, 
should have its mysteries too. Some of them have 
been cleared up; others remain unsolved to this day, 
despite all the ingenious attempts at explanation that 
have been made. Some of them go back to the distant 
past, such as the Gloriana mystery. She was a British 
brig, and in 1775 the captain of a Greenland whaler 
ran across her amidst the ice-fields at 77 degrees north 
latitude. She was a weird spectacle as she picked 
her way through a narrow channel between fwo great 
icebergs, which seemed to be closing in to crush her, 
with no one making an attempt to steer her safely 
through the danger. The Greenlander looked in amaze- 
ment. The Gloriana* s sails were torn to shreds and 
frozen hard, her rigging was a tangled mass that had 
not been trimmed for Heaven knew how long; on her 
decks great mountains of snow were reared, and her 
sides glistened with ice; she was a spectral ship of 
the icy seas, a sight to strike fear into the heart of 
any superstitious sailor. For a while the captain of 
the whaler did not know what to do; the strange 
spectacle awed him; but clearly it was his duty to 
look into the matter, and at last, summoning up 
courage, he lowered a boat and rowed over to the 
Gloriana, 


30Q 


310 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

If he had been amazed before, he was staggered 
now. Clambering up the ice-cold side, he glanced in 
at a porthole and saw a man sitting at the cabin table, 
holding a pen as though about to write in the log-book 
that lay open before him. But there was no sign of 
life about the man. He was stiff, cold, dead ! The 
Greenlander, stiffening himself up to the task before 
him, got aboard, walked gingerly, awesomely into the 
cabin and found himself standing by the side of a 
dead man, frozen hard. Peering over the dead man’s 
shoulder, he found that the last entry in the log was 
dated Nov. ii, 1762 — thirteen long years before! 
What had happened? How came it that this man 
sitting in his cabin, writing, had met death so suddenly 
that he could not finish entering his log ? The Green- 
lander could not say ; no one could ever tell ; and the 
mystery was made no clearer when it was found that 
there were several other dead bodies about, one of 
them being a woman. And not one showed any sign 
that would lead to the solution of the mystery of how 
they had met their death. 

Then take the Marie Celeste, which, leaving New 
York on Nov. 7, 1872, with a cargo of petroleum and 
alcohol, was met a month later off the Azores by the 
brig Dei Gratia, Hailing her, the captain of the latter 
ship received no answer, and something arousing his 
curiosity, he went aboard — to find not a soul on her. 
To heighten the mystery, there were no evidences of 
mutiny, panic or disorder of any kind; the log showed 
nothing that could have caused the desertion of the 
ship, the last entry being dated ten days before the 
Dei Gratia came up with her. One boat was missing, 
and that alone showed how the crew, five men, and 
the captain and his wife and child had gone. All the 
gear was in order, her rigging being properly made fast. 


Disappearances of Ships at Sea 311 

her companionways were open. Down in the cabin a 
little organ had open music lying in front of it, a sewing- 
machine had a piece of unfinished work in it, the men’s 
chests in the fo’c’sle were unopened and not ransacked, 
the captain’s dinner was half cooked in the galley. 

And all was silent. Though a score or more 
theories have been advanced, no one has yet cleared 
up the mystery of what tragic happening had taken 
place on the Marie Celeste to make her crew desert her. 

These mysteries of the sea are not all of an early 
date ; even recent years have them on record. Thus in 
1910 the Inverness-shire, which left Hamburg in March, 
bound for Saint Rosalia, in California, was met off 
the Falkland Islands in June by the Italian steamer 
Verina, with no living being aboard except a few cats. 
She, too, was in perfect order so far as arrangement 
went. Food was in a pot on the galley fire, an open 
copy of the “Ancient Mariner’’ lay on the captain’s 
table, as though he had been interrupted in his reading 
of the weird tale of the sea. Perhaps he could tell a 
weirder one than that. The sails were set, the deck 
shipshape, the cargo intact, and from the pack of cards 
which lay scattered about the mess-room table it would 
seem that the crew had been disturbed in a quiet 
game. And the explanation of it all ? It was said 
that the crew, thirty of them, had become obsessed 
with the idea that the ship was unlucky; they broke 
out into mutiny, refused to obey orders, and the ship 
was deserted. In due course the Verina towed her into 
Port Stanley, where, of course, she received her share 
in the salvage. 

In 1913 the tank steamer Roumanian came across 
a ship which was acting so queerly that the captain 
decided to investigate. It was ten days out from Port 
Arthur. The strange ship was a sailing vessel, but 


312 The Boy’s Book of the Sea 

though some of her sails were set, they answered no 
useful purpose, for she was buffeted about at the will 
of the fickle winds. It took the Roumanian an hour 
or two to catch up with the erratic ship, and when 
she did so her captain boarded and found that she 
was the Remittent, a Norwegian barque. She was 
crewless, and the explanation of her queer actions was 
that the rudder was unlashed and was banging about 
as the vessel swung to the waves. There was nothing 
missing; her papers were all intact, her cargo was 
there, her water was fresh, her provisions plenty ; and 
yet there wasn’t a man aboard, and no indication as 
to why there wasn’t. And all her lifeboats swung 
at the davits. Inquiries later showed that the Remittent 
had left Rio Grande do Sul on Oct. 25, 1912, with a 
captain and a crew of six men. The Roumanian towed 
her for many days, and then, a gale breaking upon 
them, had to cast her adrift, a danger to all shipping. 

It is this aspect of the unmanned ship that makes 
her a thing to be disposed of. Whether derelict or simply 
deserted, she is a menace to other ships; she may 
loom out of the darkest night and crash into another 
vessel, to the danger of all aboard. On the other 
hand, she may voyage for months — nay, years — and 
never come into collision. For instance, the Fannie E. 
Woolsten, an American ship, was wrecked in 1891 off 
the United States coast, whence her battered hulk 
drifted across the Atlantic, passed down the coasts 
of Europe, and then swung out across the Atlantic 
again, going ashore a hundred or so miles north of 
the place where she had been wrecked, having covered 
10,000 miles in her strange cruise. 


Printed by Cassell & Company, Limited, La Belle Sauvage, London, E.C. 
F35-4I5 


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